Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Purchased by Greenleaf Trust

Greenleaf Trust raised its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,960,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Linde by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,103,185,000 after buying an additional 372,780 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,182,870,000 after buying an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Linde by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,315,068,000 after buying an additional 488,655 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $2,409,138,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,508,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,480,277,000 after buying an additional 479,188 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on LIN. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $446.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $214.93 billion, a PE ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $350.60 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $453.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $418.29.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.16 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.13%.

Linde Company 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.