Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Acquired by Assetmark Inc.

Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 25.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,844 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,182 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $10,615,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. L.M. Kohn & Company grew its stake in Linde by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 1,096 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $450,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 538,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $221,010,000 after acquiring an additional 28,150 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 25,511 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,478,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Sachetta LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $440,000. Finally, Balentine LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 11,266 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,627,000 after buying an additional 625 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on LIN. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. TD Cowen increased their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,948 shares of company stock worth $35,687,605 in the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded down $0.14 on Wednesday, reaching $434.90. The stock had a trading volume of 409,855 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,120,583. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $449.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $428.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.42 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

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.