Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 163 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lessened its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,016 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 163 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,292,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $575,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 2,316 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $951,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Fort Point Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Point Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Seven Mile Advisory lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $238,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 2,573 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,057,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $443.18 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $456.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $420.75. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.16 EPS. Analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $1.39 dividend. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut 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, March 27th. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last quarter. 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.