Cullen Capital Management LLC Sells 24 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cullen Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 976 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24 shares during the quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $409,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Linde by 85.2% during the 4th quarter. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. now owns 2,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares during the period. Channel Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in Linde by 6.7% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,898,000 after acquiring an additional 5,021 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Linde by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $898,188,000 after purchasing an additional 46,843 shares during the period. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $625,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $437.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $458.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $453.94. The stock has a market cap of $207.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.18, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LIN. Citigroup lowered their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 ninety days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.