Pragma Gestao DE Patrimonio Ltd. Acquires New Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Pragma Gestao DE Patrimonio Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 10,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,396,000. Linde makes up 2.4% of Pragma Gestao DE Patrimonio Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Linde by 85.2% in the fourth quarter. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. now owns 2,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the period. Channel Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,092,000 after buying an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 6.7% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,898,000 after buying an additional 5,021 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Linde by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $898,188,000 after acquiring an additional 46,843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth approximately $625,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $461.43 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $454.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $454.24. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $410.69 and a 1 year high of $487.49. 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 $218.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843. 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.