Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Schechter Investment Advisors LLC

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 29.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,811 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,166 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 122.6% in the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. FWL Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 309.5% in the third quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 86 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Mizuho increased their price target on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $448.93.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $466.23 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $436.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $409.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.00, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $344.56 and a twelve month high of $477.71.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Linde Company 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.