Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 27 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,186 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 27 shares during the quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Channel Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Linde by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $898,188,000 after buying an additional 46,843 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,898,000 after buying an additional 5,021 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 16.8% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 9,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds bought 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $441.34 per share, with a total value of $44,134.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $440.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $435.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $453.11. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $209.91 billion, a PE ratio of 33.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. 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. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

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.