Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $47.65 Million Stock Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lowered its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 102,322 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 770 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama's holdings in Linde were worth $47,645,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Linde by 58,312.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake 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. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $468,360,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $510.40.

Linde Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $458.70 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $457.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $449.19. The stock has a market cap of $215.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.97. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.75 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde 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 now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, 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.

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