Simon Quick Advisors LLC Sells 190 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,331 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 190 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,813,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 130.8% in the fourth quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $423,000 after purchasing an additional 573 shares in the last quarter. MCF Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 17.9% in the 4th quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Aspire Private Capital LLC increased its position in Linde by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC now owns 1,457 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $610,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its stake in Linde by 18,890.6% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 80,520 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,711,000 after buying an additional 80,096 shares during the period. Finally, Enclave Advisors LLC bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth approximately $219,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $495.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at $11,260,958.10. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds purchased 100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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. This trade represents a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 1.5 %

LIN stock opened at $442.46 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $210.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $436.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $453.14. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $396.07 and a 1-year high of $487.49.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

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.