Essex Financial Services Inc. Increases Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Essex Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,761 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,134,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $203,000. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $1,480,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $2,045,000. Finally, Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd raised its position in Linde by 156.3% in the 4th quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,146,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Mizuho upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $460.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $442.62 on Thursday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $456.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $422.40. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $213.16 billion, a PE ratio of 35.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be given a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.13%.

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.