First American Bank Increases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

First American Bank raised its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,467 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 913 shares during the period. First American Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,964,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Van Cleef Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Linde by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Van Cleef Asset Management Inc now owns 51,012 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,357,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. increased its holdings in Linde by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. now owns 1,105 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its holdings in Linde by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,680,279 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $703,482,000 after purchasing an additional 49,374 shares during the period. Motiv8 Investments LLC raised its position in Linde by 35.8% in the 4th quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 2,388 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 56,467.9% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,097,982 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $459,692,000 after buying an additional 1,096,041 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total value of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at $11,260,958.10. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,285 shares of company stock worth $7,423,986 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

LIN opened at $460.28 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. Linde plc has a one year low of $410.69 and a one year high of $487.49. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $439.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $454.79.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

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.