Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. Purchases 504 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. lifted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 48,256 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V.’s holdings in Linde were worth $20,203,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wrapmanager Inc. increased its position in Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $709,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA raised its stake in Linde by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,999,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fourpath Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,732,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $452.12 on Monday. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $213.81 billion, a PE ratio of 33.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $455.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $450.91.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its 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 net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $498.00.

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.