Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Bought by Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC

Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC grew its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 41 shares during the quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $891,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wrapmanager Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $114,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,999,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Fourpath Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $1,732,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Austin Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $209,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Linde Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $459.09 on Tuesday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $410.69 and a 1 year high of $487.49. 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 fifty day moving average price of $453.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $454.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Linde’s payout ratio is 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.