William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 209,834 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 17.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 985,404 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 209,834 shares during the period. Linde makes up about 1.0% of William Blair Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.21% of Linde worth $412,559,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Kimelman & Baird LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC now owns 32,837 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $13,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,105 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp raised its stake in shares of Linde by 44.2% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 498,640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $208,766,000 after acquiring an additional 152,944 shares during the last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 4,382 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,835,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,578 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,010,000 after buying an additional 355 shares during the period. Finally, Glenview Trust co increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 10,762 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,506,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 over the last 90 days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on LIN shares. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $455.50 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $215.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $448.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $454.78. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $410.69 and a 52-week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

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.