Scissortail Wealth Management LLC Invests $535,000 in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Scissortail Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 1,319 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $535,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,409,138,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter worth about $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 888.7% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,329,889,000 after buying an additional 3,363,112 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Linde by 55.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,457,759 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,780,213,000 after buying an additional 1,956,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 450.3% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,141,656 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $698,566,000 after buying an additional 1,752,456 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ LIN traded up $2.69 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $448.47. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 149,572 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,257,610. 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 company has a market cap of $215.97 billion, a PE ratio of 35.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $452.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $417.35. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LIN. Citigroup lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

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.