B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC Cuts Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,355 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 124 shares during the quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,021,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 888.7% during the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,329,889,000 after buying an additional 3,363,112 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 55.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,457,759 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,780,213,000 after buying an additional 1,956,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 450.3% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,141,656 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $698,566,000 after buying an additional 1,752,456 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $448.93.

Linde Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:LIN traded down $5.22 on Tuesday, reaching $456.45. 420,177 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,310,775. The company has a market capitalization of $219.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.64, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $447.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $414.11.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.16 earnings per share. Equities 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

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.