Cynosure Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cynosure Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,051 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 138 shares during the quarter. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,901,853,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 56,467.9% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,097,982 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $459,692,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096,041 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Linde by 2,293.0% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 782,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $327,593,000 after purchasing an additional 749,763 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $308,251,000. Finally, Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $306,585,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $469.74 on Thursday. Linde plc has a one year low of $410.69 and a one year high of $487.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $457.72 and its 200-day moving average is $454.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % 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 over the last 90 days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.