Cypress Capital Group Sells 462 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cypress Capital Group lessened its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,666 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 462 shares during the period. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,210,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 384,520 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $160,987,000 after purchasing an additional 4,055 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH increased its stake in Linde by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 44,848 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $18,777,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its stake in Linde by 79.7% during the 4th quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 11,215 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,685,000 after purchasing an additional 4,975 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 8,232 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,446,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,105,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,300,092,000 after purchasing an additional 89,408 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned 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 price target of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $461.35 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $442.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $455.07. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $410.69 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $218.18 billion, a PE ratio of 33.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,260,958.10. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,377 shares of company stock valued at $6,567,231 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.