Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC Acquires New Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 132 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $1,480,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd grew its holdings in Linde by 156.3% during the 4th quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,146,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,679,000. Finally, Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,752,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Mizuho raised their target price on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $452.50.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

LIN traded down $1.34 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $449.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 228,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,289,150. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $448.92 and its 200-day moving average is $414.96. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.75, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.