Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Purchases 115 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC raised its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,586 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. AE Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Linde by 39.8% during the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,202 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,844,000 after acquiring an additional 1,196 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in Linde by 1.0% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 120,352 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $52,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its position in Linde by 7.6% during the second quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 2,180 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $957,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 12.9% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 99,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $43,492,000 after acquiring an additional 11,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in Linde during the second quarter worth $101,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $495.75.

Linde Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $436.00 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $436.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $453.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $207.61 billion, a PE ratio of 33.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.45 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 233 shares in the company, valued at $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.