Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC Acquires New Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH purchased a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth about $367,000. Country Club Bank GFN increased its stake in Linde by 1.1% during the third quarter. Country Club Bank GFN now owns 3,423 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,278,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 3.1% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,874 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,443,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Covenant Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth about $811,000. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth about $255,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’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 transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

LIN traded down $0.65 on Friday, reaching $443.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,583,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,507,545. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $456.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $421.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $213.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

About Linde

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.