Boit C F David Invests $373,000 in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Boit C F David bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $373,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 1,160.0% in the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 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 through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,725 shares of company stock valued at $5,385,750. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $464.40 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $218.60 billion, a PE ratio of 34.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $451.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $447.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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