Alliancebernstein L.P. Has $463.83 Million Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lowered its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,107,861 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 50,419 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Linde were worth $463,828,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Wrapmanager Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA boosted its stake in Linde by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,999,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourpath Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,732,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $459.11 on Monday. 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 $217.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $410.69 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $456.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $454.14.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is an increase 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 1.31%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $610,662. This trade represents a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is owned by 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.