Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Lowers Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lessened its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 19.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 100,997 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 23,783 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI's holdings in Linde were worth $42,284,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Wrapmanager Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC boosted its position in Linde by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its position in Linde by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,999,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourpath Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,732,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $460.33 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $451.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $447.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00. Linde plc has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Linde's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.75 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Linde's payout ratio is 43.57%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at $610,662. This represents a 65.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48% 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 corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $503.11.

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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