Bfsg LLC Has $5.37 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bfsg LLC lessened its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 13,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 221 shares during the quarter. Bfsg LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 122.6% in the 3rd quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE grew its position in shares of Linde by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen upped their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded 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. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $456.79.

Insider Activity at Linde

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 stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of Linde 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded down $1.96 on Thursday, hitting $442.36. 320,472 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,202,873. The business’s fifty day moving average is $455.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $420.11. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.26, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.13%.

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.