Cetera Trust Company N.A Invests $175,000 in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cetera Trust Company N.A bought a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 426 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $175,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $1,480,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,045,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd lifted its stake in Linde by 156.3% in the fourth quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,146,000 after buying an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,679,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Linde 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Mizuho raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $447.40 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $215.46 billion, a PE ratio of 35.42, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $350.60 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $453.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $418.89.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders 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 1.24%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.13%.

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.