SVB Wealth LLC Purchases Shares of 13,209 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 13,209 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,531,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Wrapmanager Inc. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA grew its holdings in Linde by 0.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Fourpath Capital Management LLC increased its position in Linde by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,732,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company raised its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 2,009 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $841,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 16,285 shares of company stock worth $7,423,986. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen raised 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 research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $467.05 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $222.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.32, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $440.68 and a 200 day moving average of $454.96. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company 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 represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.09%.

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.