Stevens Capital Management LP Purchases New Shares in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $430,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 122.6% in the 3rd quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE raised its stake in shares of Linde by 42.2% in 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 position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, 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. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

LIN stock traded down $0.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $443.18. 1,559,752 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,209,088. The firm has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $455.83 and its 200 day moving average is $420.27. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $350.60 and a twelve month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The business 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%. Linde’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

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.