Trust Point Inc. Buys New Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Trust Point Inc. purchased a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 3,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,413,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 122.6% in the 3rd quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new stake in Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. FWL Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 309.5% during the third quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 86 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $448.93.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $0.83 on Wednesday, reaching $462.17. 349,223 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,344,282. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $222.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $442.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $411.88.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted 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. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.20%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. 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.