Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 203,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,879 shares during the period. Linde makes up 1.3% of Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $85,018,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Impact Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,090,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 92,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,677,000 after buying an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. DecisionMap Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $207,000. CFO4Life Group LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 561 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $235,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its position in Linde by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 1,629 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $682,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on LIN. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Down 0.6 %

LIN opened at $451.17 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $447.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $455.13. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $410.69 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $213.36 billion, a PE ratio of 33.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.09%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,377 shares of company stock valued at $6,567,231. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.