Brown Advisory Inc. Raises Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 4.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 117,861 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 211,395 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $88,505,000 after buying an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Markel Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 168,000 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $70,337,000 after buying an additional 13,000 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,261,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 300.3% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $10,948,000 after buying an additional 19,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 22,235 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $9,287,000 after buying an additional 4,162 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $0.93 on Thursday, hitting $470.34. 2,237,051 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,975,672. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $462.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $452.02.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released 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. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. Linde's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Linde 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.