Cwm LLC Purchases 526 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cwm LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,015 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 526 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,703,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Ziegler Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $219,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $233,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 10,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,985,000 after buying an additional 921 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 3,631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,352,000 after buying an additional 274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 17,713 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,595,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of LIN opened at $444.32 on Thursday. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $455.53 and its 200-day moving average is $420.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.98 billion, a PE ratio of 35.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.16 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.