Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC Buys 68 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,560 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,960,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the last quarter. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $553,000. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,690,000 after acquiring an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,212,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 50.6% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 105,542 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $43,347,000 after acquiring an additional 35,467 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Mizuho raised their price objective on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, TD Cowen raised 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN traded down $7.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $445.43. The stock had a trading volume of 465,728 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,283,890. 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 firm has a market cap of $214.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.79, a PEG ratio of 2.94 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $449.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $415.22.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.16 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current 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 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

Linde 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.