Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 29.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,811 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,166 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,154,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Carmel Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 122.6% in the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. FWL Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 309.5% in the third quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 86 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

Linde stock opened at $466.23 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $436.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $409.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market cap of $224.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $344.56 and a twelve month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. Linde’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $448.93.

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.