Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. Increases Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. raised its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 17.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,520 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,120 shares during the period. Linde accounts for approximately 1.8% of Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.'s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda.'s holdings in Linde were worth $3,502,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the fourth 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 period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 2.8% during the fourth 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 period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 80.4% during the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $943,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $224,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the 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 directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the 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. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $465.01 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $464.65 and a 200-day moving average of $454.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a PEG ratio of 3.28 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The business's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.75 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid 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 1.29%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $518.80.

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.

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