Avestar Capital LLC Grows Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Avestar Capital LLC increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,432 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 414 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,856,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Linde by 85.2% during the 4th quarter. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. now owns 2,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. Channel Wealth LLC raised its position in Linde by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Linde by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $898,188,000 after purchasing an additional 46,843 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Linde by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,898,000 after purchasing an additional 5,021 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $625,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,503 shares of company stock valued at $4,306,843 in the last three months. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 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. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $458.56 on Thursday. Linde plc has a one year low of $410.69 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $434.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $453.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.35 billion, a PE ratio of 33.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.