Skopos Labs Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Skopos Labs Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,949 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,211,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $3,066,825,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth about $1,892,774,000. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,672,000 after purchasing an additional 468,415 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $168,636,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 33,201.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $169,189,000 after purchasing an additional 410,705 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $468.83.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock traded up $3.27 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $435.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,157,352 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,119,008. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $209.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.93, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $447.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $428.15.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. Linde’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 77,948 shares of company stock valued at $35,687,605 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% 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.