Flputnam Investment Management Co. Acquires 75 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. lifted its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 75 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,905,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. TradeLink Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 36.4% in the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $566,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $957,000 after acquiring an additional 607 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $760,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $6,682,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.34 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $445.09. The stock had a trading volume of 164,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,267,581. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $214.35 billion, a PE ratio of 35.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $451.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $416.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend 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.