US Bancorp DE Sells 7,119 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

US Bancorp DE decreased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 309,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,119 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE owned 0.06% of Linde worth $129,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $692,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Noesis Capital Mangement Corp lifted its stake in Linde by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Noesis Capital Mangement Corp now owns 30,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,754,000 after purchasing an additional 862 shares during the last quarter. Terril Brothers Inc. bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $204,000. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $5,531,000. Finally, Flputnam Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in Linde by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 21,123 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,844,000 after purchasing an additional 3,350 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $467.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $222.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.32, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50 day moving average is $440.68 and its 200 day moving average is $454.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $410.69 and a 52-week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

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.