Courier Capital LLC Sells 146 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Courier Capital LLC decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,184 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 146 shares during the quarter. Courier Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,468,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 122.6% in the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth about $29,000. FWL Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 309.5% in the third quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 86 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $466.23 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.00, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $344.56 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $436.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $409.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.16 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $448.93.

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.