Private Advisor Group LLC Increases Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 9.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,747 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,956 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $10,592,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th 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 lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 30,750 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Linde by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,857,741,000 after acquiring an additional 554,480 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $2,128,233,000. 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 company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.8%

LIN 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 50-day simple moving average of $464.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $454.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.75 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup upgraded 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 note on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price 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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