Whipplewood Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 509 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 509 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wrapmanager Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,999,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Fourpath Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,732,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Romano Brothers AND Company increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 2,009 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $841,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds bought 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 16,285 shares of company stock worth $7,423,986. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 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. According to MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $460.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $410.69 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $219.17 billion, a PE ratio of 33.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $439.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $454.79.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.09%.

About Linde

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.