Ballentine Partners LLC Has $2.25 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,471 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,247,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 122.6% during the 3rd quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new position in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Halpern Financial Inc. raised its stake in Linde by 309.5% during the 3rd quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 86 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, FWL Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.1 %

LIN traded up $0.28 on Thursday, hitting $462.75. The company had a trading volume of 544,902 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,332,971. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $443.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $412.23. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $350.60 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $448.93.

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.