Wealth Alliance Sells 48 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Wealth Alliance trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,370 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 48 shares during the quarter. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,795,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its stake in Linde by 1.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,103,185,000 after purchasing an additional 372,780 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,182,870,000 after buying an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Linde by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,315,068,000 after buying an additional 488,655 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,409,138,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,508,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,480,277,000 after acquiring an additional 479,188 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Up 0.3 %

LIN stock traded up $1.25 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $446.00. 852,265 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,277,133. The stock has a market cap of $214.78 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 fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $451.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $416.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research 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 issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.