Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH Sells 114,225 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH decreased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 12.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 810,028 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 114,225 shares during the period. Linde accounts for about 0.8% of Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH's holdings, making the stock its 18th largest position. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned about 0.17% of Linde worth $377,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its position in Linde by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at about $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on LIN. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Linde Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of LIN traded up $0.38 on Friday, hitting $471.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 426,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,138,544. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $466.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $455.62. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

About Linde

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.