Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is Grandfield & Dodd LLC’s 3rd Largest Position

Grandfield & Dodd LLC lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 112,823 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 408 shares during the period. Linde accounts for 3.2% of Grandfield & Dodd LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Grandfield & Dodd LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $46,338,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. abrdn plc increased its stake in shares of Linde by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 488,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $200,702,000 after acquiring an additional 88,774 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 1,262 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $518,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the period. Heirloom Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Linde by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Heirloom Wealth Management now owns 26,557 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,907,000 after acquiring an additional 460 shares during the period. Geneva Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $205,000. Finally, Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $203,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, 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 report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Linde Trading Down 0.0 %

LIN traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $446.30. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,831,208 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,488,572. 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’s 50-day moving average is $453.89 and its 200-day moving average is $418.29. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $214.93 billion, a PE ratio of 35.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.16 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.