Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Purchases 372 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,763,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Wrapmanager Inc. grew its position in Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 3,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,305,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LIN. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $503.11.

Linde Stock Up 0.4%

LIN opened at $473.77 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $452.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $448.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Linde plc has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.75 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.