Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Keel Point LLC

Keel Point LLC lessened its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 52 shares during the quarter. Keel Point LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $747,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in Linde by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,354,782 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $556,423,000 after acquiring an additional 18,614 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management increased its stake in Linde by 55.7% during the fourth quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 9,120 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,746,000 after acquiring an additional 3,262 shares during the last quarter. Drake & Associates LLC increased its stake in Linde by 18.6% during the fourth quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 2,593 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,065,000 after acquiring an additional 406 shares during the last quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $850,000. Finally, Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,045,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $444.75 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $214.18 billion, a PE ratio of 35.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $451.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $416.84. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.16 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders 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%. 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 payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Mizuho lifted 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

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.