SC&H Financial Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 766 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

SC&H Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 766 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $315,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning bought a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,480,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,045,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in Linde by 156.3% during the fourth quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,146,000 after buying an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,679,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $456.79.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. 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 Linde stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.2 %

LIN traded up $0.67 during trading on Monday, hitting $446.97. 1,345,915 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,239,672. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $453.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $418.89. The firm has a market cap of $215.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.16 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $1.39 dividend. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

Linde Company 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.