Legal & General Group Plc Sells 787,518 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 23.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,538,159 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 787,518 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.53% of Linde worth $1,062,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wrapmanager Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $114,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA increased its position in Linde by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,999,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourpath Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,732,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $498.00.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded up $9.95 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $441.83. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,342,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,938,062. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $208.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.46, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $456.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $452.01.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.