Courier Capital LLC Has $7.33 Million Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Courier Capital LLC lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,513 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 237 shares during the quarter. Courier Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,332,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $466,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 7.2% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 71,549 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,396,000 after purchasing an additional 4,805 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 12.5% in the 2nd quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $688,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 4.5% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,849 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,566,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Linde by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 725,445 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $318,332,000 after purchasing an additional 20,060 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on LIN. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $495.75.

Linde Stock Up 1.8 %

LIN stock traded up $7.28 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $421.43. 2,811,848 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,507,737. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $439.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $453.30. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $396.07 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $200.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. The trade was a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.