Riverbridge Partners LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Riverbridge Partners LLC reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,166 shares during the quarter. Riverbridge Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,263,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 5.5% in the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 5,750 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,523,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Linde by 68.9% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 18,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,012,000 after purchasing an additional 7,446 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 3,876 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,701,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Linde by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI raised its holdings in Linde by 86.4% in the second quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 195,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $85,734,000 after buying an additional 90,549 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup decreased their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Linde Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $442.60 on Thursday. Linde plc has a one year low of $396.07 and a one year high of $487.49. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $435.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $453.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.63 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.45 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,260,958.10. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.