New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $308.32 Million Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 750,698 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 63,084 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Linde were worth $308,319,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Carmel Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 122.6% during the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its stake in Linde by 42.2% during the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $446.97. 1,345,915 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,239,672. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $453.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $418.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.25 billion, a PE ratio of 35.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on LIN. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $456.79.

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.