Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by New Mexico Educational Retirement Board

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board trimmed its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 3.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,236 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board's holdings in Linde were worth $10,354,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,598,551,000 after buying an additional 30,750 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Linde by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,857,741,000 after buying an additional 554,480 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set 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. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $518.80.

Linde Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of LIN stock traded up $1.32 on Wednesday, hitting $471.27. The stock had a trading volume of 1,522,464 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,969,266. The stock's 50 day moving average is $462.36 and its 200-day moving average is $451.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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. The trade was 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.

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.