PFG Advisors Raises Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

PFG Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 34.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,597 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares during the period. PFG Advisors' holdings in Linde were worth $2,141,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. North Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group boosted 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. Finally, Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Linde Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of LIN stock traded up $1.40 on Friday, hitting $472.89. The stock had a trading volume of 1,212,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,547,221. The business has a 50 day moving average of $466.53 and a 200 day moving average of $456.27. The stock has a market cap of $222.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $8.11 billion during 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.75 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's payout ratio is 43.57%.

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.