Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Sells 3,100 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lessened its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 116,596 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,100 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Linde were worth $48,815,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its position in shares of Linde by 108.7% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $374,086,000 after purchasing an additional 408,659 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter worth about $252,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Linde by 147.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 32,698 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $15,592,000 after purchasing an additional 19,459 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Linde by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 9,004 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,294,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Silver Oak Securities Incorporated raised its position in shares of Linde by 247.8% in the 3rd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 1,965 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $940,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds purchased 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 233 shares in the company, valued at $102,832.22. This trade represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 16,285 shares of company stock worth $7,423,986 in the last three months. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LIN. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho boosted their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup decreased their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Linde Trading Down 0.8 %

LIN stock opened at $458.00 on Friday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $410.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $218.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.65, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $436.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $454.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.