Saturna Capital Corp Lowers Stock Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Saturna Capital Corp reduced its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 134,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 848 shares during the quarter. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $62,832,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $468,360,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

LIN stock opened at $461.29 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $464.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $453.75. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. 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 1.30%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% 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, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was 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 directly owned 22,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on LIN. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $518.80.

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.