Signaturefd LLC Purchases 435 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 9,898 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 435 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. now owns 2,780 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,295,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 13,588 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,327,000 after buying an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. increased its holdings in Linde by 40.6% in the 1st quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $316,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 2,549 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,187,000 after buying an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilkinson Global Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Wilkinson Global Asset Management LLC now owns 120,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $56,128,000 after buying an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.3%

LIN stock opened at $468.81 on Monday. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $220.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.05, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $463.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $453.04.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.75 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $518.80.

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.