New Jersey Better Educational Savings Trust Purchases Shares of 490 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

New Jersey Better Educational Savings Trust purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Ziegler Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at $219,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at $233,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 9.4% in the third quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 10,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,985,000 after buying an additional 921 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its stake in Linde by 8.2% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 3,631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,352,000 after buying an additional 274 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its stake in Linde by 0.4% in the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 17,713 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,595,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on LIN. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $0.49 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $443.83. 1,390,610 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,217,092. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $213.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $455.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $420.11.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.16 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.