Schear Investment Advisers LLC Acquires 33 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,486 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 33 shares during the quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LIN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Linde in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 888.7% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Linde by 55.9% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Linde by 450.3% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 1,752,456 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of Linde stock traded down $0.13 on Friday, hitting $446.30. 678,257 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,235,913. 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 current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a fifty day moving average of $453.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $417.76. The company has a market capitalization of $214.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Stifel Nicolaus cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

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.