Aviva PLC Decreases Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Aviva PLC decreased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 555,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 74,448 shares during the period. Linde makes up approximately 0.6% of Aviva PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Aviva PLC owned 0.12% of Linde worth $232,770,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $252,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.5% during the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 7,288 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,476,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $496,000. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its holdings in Linde by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 177,381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,586,000 after buying an additional 20,751 shares during the period. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC raised its position in Linde by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 11,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,518,000 after buying an additional 881 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $437.96 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $207.12 billion, a PE ratio of 32.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $458.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $454.06. 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 plc has a twelve month low of $410.69 and a twelve month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a $1.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.09%.

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.