Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. Buys 300 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. grew its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 34.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,168 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth about $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 888.7% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,329,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,363,112 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Linde by 55.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,457,759 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,780,213,000 after purchasing an additional 1,956,394 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Linde by 450.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,141,656 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $698,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752,456 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on LIN. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Price Performance

LIN traded up $0.17 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $445.95. 287,066 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,259,905. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $350.60 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The company has a market cap of $214.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.38, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $452.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $417.35.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.16 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm 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 a boost 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 dividend yield of 1.25%. Linde’s 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.