PFW Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 3,572 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,495,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates grew its position in Linde by 144.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $43,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. raised its stake in Linde by 1,733.3% in the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 618.8% during the third quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $495.75.

Linde Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of Linde stock traded up $7.28 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $421.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,812,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,507,737. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $439.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $453.30. The company has a market capitalization of $200.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a one year low of $396.07 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.63 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $441.34 per share, with a total value of $44,134.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.