Cordatus Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cordatus Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,785 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Linde comprises 1.1% of Cordatus Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,090,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Linde by 58,312.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Linde by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $468,360,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $386,957,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $466.23 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.96. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $467.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $457.06.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.75 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Argus raised shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Two equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $518.80.

Linde Company 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.