Cumberland Partners Ltd Decreases Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cumberland Partners Ltd trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 75,366 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 645 shares during the period. Linde accounts for about 2.4% of Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in Linde were worth $28,153,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,480,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,045,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd increased its position in Linde by 156.3% in the 4th quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,146,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,679,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of LIN stock traded down $1.91 on Tuesday, reaching $445.06. 1,464,431 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,229,750. The stock has a market cap of $214.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $455.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $419.93. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.16 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.13%.

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.