Everett Harris & Co. CA Purchases 173 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Everett Harris & Co. CA lifted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 17.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 173 shares during the quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA’s holdings in Linde were worth $484,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Linde by 888.7% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,329,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,363,112 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Linde by 55.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,457,759 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,780,213,000 after purchasing an additional 1,956,394 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 450.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,141,656 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $698,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752,456 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded down $1.91 during trading on Thursday, hitting $464.32. 1,784,923 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,413,546. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $223.61 billion, a PE ratio of 36.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $348.38 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $437.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $409.61.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its 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. The firm 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.16 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $448.93.

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.