Brown Advisory Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 117,861 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,564 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $54,881,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $325,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $28,662,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 35.1% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,623 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,098,000 after buying an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 10,613 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,444,000 after buying an additional 652 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group increased their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Linde stock traded down $1.30 during trading on Thursday, hitting $469.97. The stock had a trading volume of 977,606 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,969,120. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $462.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $452.02. The stock has a market cap of $221.22 billion, a PE ratio of 34.17, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.75 EPS. The business's revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.