Natural Investments LLC Sells 33 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Natural Investments LLC decreased its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.4% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 33 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises 1.2% of Natural Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Natural Investments LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th 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 bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $468,360,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $386,957,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Linde Trading Up 0.5%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $469.84 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $467.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $458.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $220.31 billion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.85 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. UBS Group boosted their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, 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 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.63.

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.