Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC Has $493,000 Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC cut its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 60 shares during the period. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $493,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 48,144 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,156,000 after purchasing an additional 2,722 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,577 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,335,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. HUB Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $224,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 113,525 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,528,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $610,662. This trade represents a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $457.75 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market cap of $216.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.63, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average of $452.08 and a 200-day moving average of $454.63. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $410.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. On average, equities research analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. 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.