Geneva Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 500 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Geneva Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. TradeLink Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth about $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 25.4% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its position in Linde by 15.3% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $760,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $6,682,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Trading Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ LIN traded down $0.13 on Friday, reaching $446.30. The company had a trading volume of 1,831,170 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,251,431. The firm has a market cap of $214.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The business has a 50 day moving average of $453.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $418.29.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 1.25%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.