Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Purchased by J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 22.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,262 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 235 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $518,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Carmel Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group purchased a new stake in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE lifted its stake in Linde by 42.2% in the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Down 0.4 %

Linde stock opened at $445.06 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $455.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $419.93.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Linde Company 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.