Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Boosts Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 24,870 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $10,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Carmel Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE boosted its position in Linde by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded up $0.40 on Friday, hitting $444.23. 798,036 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,199,173. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $455.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $420.27. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The business 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. 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 1.25%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

About Linde

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.