Financial Counselors Inc. Buys 122 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Financial Counselors Inc. raised its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,948 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,234,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Wrapmanager Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC increased its stake in Linde by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA increased its stake in Linde by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,999,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,732,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Austin Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $209,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at $6,786,289.30. This trade represents a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $464.73 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $455.63 and a 200 day moving average of $454.31. The company has a market capitalization of $219.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.15, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $410.69 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

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.