Phoenix Financial Ltd. Raises Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,680 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 820 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s holdings in Linde were worth $6,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $2,901,853,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 56,467.9% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,097,982 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $459,692,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096,041 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 2,293.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 782,461 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $327,593,000 after purchasing an additional 749,763 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $308,251,000. Finally, Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $306,585,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $498.00.

Linde Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of LIN traded up $7.03 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $453.06. 1,131,307 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,934,755. The firm has a market cap of $214.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.29, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $456.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $451.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast 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 was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a $1.50 dividend. This is an increase from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. Linde's payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the business'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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the business's 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 owns 14,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This trade 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 valued at $5,603,843 over the last three months. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.