Dohj LLC Acquires Shares of 1,219 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Dohj LLC acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 1,219 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 3,943 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,619,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 310.0% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $353,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $327,000. Finally, Markel Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 126,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,832,000 after acquiring an additional 5,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 at the SEC website. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ LIN traded down $0.65 on Friday, hitting $443.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,583,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,507,545. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The company’s 50-day moving average is $456.06 and its 200 day moving average is $420.75. The firm has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm 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 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

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