American Century Companies Inc. Sells 17,075 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

American Century Companies Inc. lowered its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 491,168 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 17,075 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.10% of Linde worth $205,637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $252,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,536,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 70,422 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,581,000 after buying an additional 2,772 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 9,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,757,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $859,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $458.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $452.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $454.35. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $410.69 and a twelve month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.09%.

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.