Robeco Schweiz AG Raises Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Robeco Schweiz AG increased its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,540 shares during the period. Robeco Schweiz AG’s holdings in Linde were worth $22,401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its stake in shares of Linde by 108.7% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $374,086,000 after buying an additional 408,659 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter worth about $252,000. Arkadios Wealth Advisors grew its position in Linde by 5.3% in the third quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 1,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $619,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC increased its stake in Linde by 21.2% during the third quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 1,961 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $935,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC raised its position in Linde by 7.4% during the third quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 916 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $437,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho lifted their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $461.40 on Thursday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $219.70 billion, a PE ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $439.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $454.75. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.