Fisher Funds Management LTD Invests $3.34 Million in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Fisher Funds Management LTD acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 7,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,339,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,099 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $460,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc lifted its stake in Linde by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 25,973 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,944,000 after buying an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $216,000. Prentice Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Linde by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,447 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $606,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Indie Asset Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Indie Asset Partners LLC now owns 598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $250,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during 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 topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of LIN opened at $458.00 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $218.08 billion, a PE ratio of 33.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company’s fifty day moving average is $436.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $454.48. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

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.