Chicago Capital LLC Acquires 12,836 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Chicago Capital LLC raised its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 617.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,916 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 12,836 shares during the quarter. Chicago Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,126,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the second quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,692,463 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $644,986,000 after purchasing an additional 14,969 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP acquired a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $23,044,000. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning bought a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $1,600,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 156.3% during the 4th quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,146,000 after buying an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $1,679,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $463.40 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $223.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.78, a PEG ratio of 3.03 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 plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $440.17 and its 200-day moving average is $410.84.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $1.39 dividend. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following 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 sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $448.93.

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.