Dover Advisors LLC Sells 178 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Dover Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,985 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 178 shares during the quarter. Dover Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $815,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Winder Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,892,774,000. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $168,636,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 33,201.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $169,189,000 after purchasing an additional 410,705 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,592,343 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $973,865,000 after purchasing an additional 391,153 shares during the period. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 53.1% in the 3rd quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,033,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $384,681,000 after purchasing an additional 358,492 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $0.65 on Friday, reaching $443.18. 1,583,773 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,507,545. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $456.06 and its 200-day moving average is $421.34. Linde plc has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $213.42 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Mizuho upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.