Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Decreases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lessened its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 101,245 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,402 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Linde were worth $42,388,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $910,000. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $4,524,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Linde by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 605,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,389,000 after purchasing an additional 69,929 shares during the period. Zeno Equity Partners LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Zeno Equity Partners LLP now owns 74,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,140,000 after buying an additional 2,734 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment House LLC grew its position in Linde by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Investment House LLC now owns 13,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,487,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Down 0.2 %

Linde stock opened at $459.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $451.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $454.61. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $410.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. On average, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.