Dodge & Cox Boosts Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Dodge & Cox boosted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,329,590 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares during the quarter. Dodge & Cox owned about 0.28% of Linde worth $556,659,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,598,551,000 after buying an additional 30,750 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth $2,901,853,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Linde by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,818,608 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,598,737,000 after acquiring an additional 265,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Linde by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,105,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,300,092,000 after purchasing an additional 89,408 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Linde by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $898,188,000 after purchasing an additional 46,843 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the firm's 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 owns 1,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $610,662. This trade represents a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was 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 directly owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 over the last 90 days. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded up $4.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $452.12. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,726,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,947,178. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $455.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $451.04. The stock has a market cap of $213.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.22, 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 quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) 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 anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Linde's payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $498.00.

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.