Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC Buys 146 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,818 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,312,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Capital World Investors raised its position 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 worth $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Linde by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,551,000 after acquiring an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Linde by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,857,741,000 after acquiring an additional 554,480 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,128,233,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $468.81 on Monday. The stock 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $463.44 and a 200 day moving average of $453.04. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

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

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.