PFW Advisors LLC Takes $1.50 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 3,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,495,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in Linde by 144.8% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Kozak & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $43,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 1,733.3% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Linde by 618.8% during the 3rd quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday. Mizuho upped their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup decreased their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $495.75.

Linde Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of LIN stock traded up $7.28 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $421.43. 2,812,033 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,507,737. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $439.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $453.30. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $396.07 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $200.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.00, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

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.