Scissortail Wealth Management LLC Takes Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Scissortail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,319 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $535,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,103,185,000 after buying an additional 372,780 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,182,870,000 after purchasing an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Linde by 6.0% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,315,068,000 after purchasing an additional 488,655 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,409,138,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Linde by 7.9% during the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,508,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,480,277,000 after purchasing an additional 479,188 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $2.69 on Wednesday, hitting $448.47. 149,572 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,257,610. The stock has a market cap of $215.97 billion, a PE ratio of 35.38, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $452.10 and a 200-day moving average of $417.35. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, 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 value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on LIN shares. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $456.79.

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.