Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Position Boosted by Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 772.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,732 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,011 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $9,747,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 122.6% during the 3rd quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 310.0% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 347.6% during the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 94 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $460.15.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $3.98 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $423.60. 2,656,083 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,234,159. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $455.95 and its 200-day moving average is $422.38. 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 stock has a market cap of $204.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $350.60 and a 52 week high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 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 down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

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.