65,968 Shares in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Bought by Allianz SE

Allianz SE purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 65,968 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,583,000. Linde makes up about 0.7% of Allianz SE’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,973,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,217,197,000 after acquiring an additional 154,792 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,901,853,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Linde by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,105,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,300,092,000 after purchasing an additional 89,408 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Linde by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $898,188,000 after buying an additional 46,843 shares during the period. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,680,279 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $703,482,000 after buying an additional 49,374 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Trading Down 1.2 %

LIN opened at $459.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company’s 50-day moving average is $456.09 and its 200 day moving average is $454.28.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 in the last quarter. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.