Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Has $42.39 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lessened its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 101,245 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 3,402 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS's holdings in Linde were worth $42,388,000 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 the business. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $910,000. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,524,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Linde by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 605,224 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $253,389,000 after purchasing an additional 69,929 shares during the last quarter. Zeno Equity Partners LLP raised its position in shares of Linde by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Zeno Equity Partners LLP now owns 74,378 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $31,140,000 after purchasing an additional 2,734 shares during the period. Finally, Investment House LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Investment House LLC now owns 13,106 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,487,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 1,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % 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 90 days. Insiders own 0.60% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $459.09. The stock had a trading volume of 2,049,518 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,724,670. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $453.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $454.18. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $410.69 and a 52 week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. This is a positive change from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.09%.

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.