Abbrea Capital LLC Has $1.11 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Abbrea Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Abbrea Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,182,870,000 after purchasing an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Winder Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $1,892,774,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Linde by 2.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,081,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,891,976,000 after purchasing an additional 123,174 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,960,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,102,475,000 after purchasing an additional 75,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,766,608 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,030,146,000 after purchasing an additional 9,541 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Mizuho raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Linde Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of LIN traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $443.18. 1,559,752 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,209,088. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $455.83 and a 200-day moving average of $420.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

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