Natixis Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 11.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 650,130 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 68,564 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for 0.6% of Natixis Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Natixis Advisors LLC owned about 0.14% of Linde worth $302,727,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position 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 worth $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its position 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 worth $28,662,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 80.4% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $943,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:LIN traded down $0.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $459.41. 2,219,331 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,128,351. The company has a fifty day moving average of $467.14 and a 200 day moving average of $457.33. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $216.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.29 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 (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.85 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Insider Activity

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

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.