Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Sells 524 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC decreased its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 524 shares during the period. Linde makes up 2.0% of Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Linde were worth $23,979,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. TradeLink Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 36.4% in the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 25.4% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $957,000 after acquiring an additional 607 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its position in shares of Linde by 15.3% in the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $760,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $6,682,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho increased their target price on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $448.93.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of LIN opened at $464.32 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $223.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $348.38 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $437.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $409.61.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% 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.