C WorldWide Group Holding A S Has $431.78 Million Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

C WorldWide Group Holding A S lessened its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,051,308 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 127,714 shares during the period. Linde comprises 5.8% of C WorldWide Group Holding A S’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. C WorldWide Group Holding A S owned approximately 0.22% of Linde worth $431,783,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 122.6% during the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $29,000. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 310.0% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE lifted its holdings in Linde by 42.2% in the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $0.65 on Friday, reaching $443.18. 1,583,773 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,507,545. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $350.60 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The company has a 50 day moving average of $456.06 and a 200 day moving average of $420.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.90 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.16 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

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.