Clune & Associates LTD. Acquires New Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Clune & Associates LTD. bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 491 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at about $252,000. Nwam LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $495,000. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,493,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Linde by 212.0% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 986 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the period. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $10,489,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of 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 raised their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of LIN opened at $459.09 on Tuesday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $410.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $453.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $454.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

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.