Versant Capital Management Inc Buys 117 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 22.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 644 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 117 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Linde were worth $270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $34,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates lifted its holdings in Linde by 144.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Linde in the third quarter valued at about $43,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 133.3% in the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 98 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 1,733.3% during the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $413.50 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $396.07 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $446.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $454.18.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total value of $963,388.30. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.