Cannell & Spears LLC Increases Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cannell & Spears LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $615,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 1,160.0% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its holdings in Linde by 144.8% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Citigroup dropped their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Linde Stock Up 1.4 %

LIN opened at $465.64 on Tuesday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $410.69 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $456.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $454.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $220.21 billion, a PE ratio of 34.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a $1.50 dividend. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. 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.