First American Trust FSB Takes Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

First American Trust FSB bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $333,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 888.7% during the first 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 increased its position in shares of Linde by 55.9% during the fourth 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. increased its position in shares of Linde by 450.3% during the fourth 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 currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of 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. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Price Performance

LIN stock traded down $0.81 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $443.94. The company had a trading volume of 314,557 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,269,684. The company has a market capitalization of $213.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month high of $477.71. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $451.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $416.84.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.16 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were 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 hyperlink. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.