South Dakota Investment Council Cuts Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

South Dakota Investment Council trimmed its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 9.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,828 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 600 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council's holdings in Linde were worth $2,714,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LIN. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 6.7% during the first quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 19,320 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $8,996,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217 shares in the last quarter. Balentine LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $303,000. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 3,684 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,666,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 22,747 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $10,592,000 after buying an additional 1,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FLC Capital Advisors purchased a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $238,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $465.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $218.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.77, a PEG ratio of 3.28 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 PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $464.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $454.32.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.75 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS 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 given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.57%.

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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