Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Enterprise Financial Services Corp

Enterprise Financial Services Corp lowered its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 623 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 28 shares during the quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,973,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,217,197,000 after buying an additional 154,792 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Linde by 372.8% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,288,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,958,000 after purchasing an additional 2,592,682 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Linde by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,105,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,300,092,000 after purchasing an additional 89,408 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its position in Linde by 2.4% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,374,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,130,986,000 after purchasing an additional 56,775 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Linde by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $898,188,000 after purchasing an additional 46,843 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds purchased 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $441.34 per share, with a total value of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. The trade was a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total value of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,260,958.10. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,377 shares of company stock valued at $6,567,231 over the last ninety days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $468.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $221.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $444.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $455.29. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $410.69 and a 12-month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on LIN. Citigroup dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

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.