Cozad Asset Management Inc. Has $657,000 Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 9.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,411 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 147 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $657,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $471.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.95 billion, a PE ratio of 34.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $466.90 and its 200 day moving average is $457.00. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The firm’s revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $518.80.

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.