GAMMA Investing LLC Boosts Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 25.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,488 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,416,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $468,360,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $386,957,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Argus raised shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $510.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 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 Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $463.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $218.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.68, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $458.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $449.63.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.57%.

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.