Cannon Global Investment Management LLC Makes New $1.77 Million Investment in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cannon Global Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,766,000. Linde accounts for about 13.3% of Cannon Global Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 888.7% in the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,329,889,000 after buying an additional 3,363,112 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 55.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,457,759 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,780,213,000 after buying an additional 1,956,394 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 450.3% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,141,656 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $698,566,000 after buying an additional 1,752,456 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

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

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $446.71. 387,776 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,232,088. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $453.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $417.76. The company has a market capitalization of $215.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.43, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

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.