Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Stiles Financial Services Inc

Stiles Financial Services Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 588 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 64 shares during the quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Linde were worth $241,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 888.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 3,363,112 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Linde by 55.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,956,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Linde by 450.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,752,456 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $452.50.

Linde Stock Down 1.5 %

LIN stock traded down $6.81 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $451.13. 279,015 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,295,406. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $448.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $414.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.34, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $350.60 and a 52-week high of $477.71. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.