Avanza Fonder AB Buys Shares of 44,860 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 44,860 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,073,000. Linde makes up approximately 0.7% of Avanza Fonder AB’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after buying an additional 3,410,087 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after buying an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $468,360,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.11.

Linde Price Performance

LIN stock opened at $472.17 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $452.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $448.63. The stock has a market cap of $222.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.69, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.97. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, 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 owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business’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 value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.