Capital World Investors Raises Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 34.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Capital World Investors owned about 2.43% of Linde worth $4,834,631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Linde by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,062,295 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $863,406,000 after buying an additional 151,711 shares during the period. Dnca Finance boosted its position in Linde by 28.4% during the fourth quarter. Dnca Finance now owns 80,640 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $33,762,000 after purchasing an additional 17,860 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Linde by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 595,775 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $249,433,000 after purchasing an additional 114,271 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP raised its holdings in Linde by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 4,158 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,741,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Ltd. CA lifted its position in shares of Linde by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA now owns 44,182 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $18,498,000 after buying an additional 4,031 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $610,662. The trade was 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 the SEC website. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 over the last quarter. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented 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 Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $498.00.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded down $0.31 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $447.90. 1,077,754 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,943,594. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $454.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $450.75. The firm has a market cap of $211.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.92, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. On average, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is a positive change from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. Linde's payout ratio is 44.09%.

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.