Swiss National Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Swiss National Bank cut its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,349,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 77,600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $564,786,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wrapmanager Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,999,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,732,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Austin Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $209,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,377 shares of company stock worth $6,567,231 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of LIN opened at $451.17 on Thursday. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $213.36 billion, a PE ratio of 33.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $447.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $455.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS 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 issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

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.