Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,392 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 374 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,911,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $575,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.1% during 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 last quarter. Fort Point Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Linde by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fort Point Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $516,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Seven Mile Advisory boosted its stake in Linde by 4.2% during the third quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $238,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. increased its position in Linde by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 2,573 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,057,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 77,948 shares of company stock valued at $35,687,605. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, HSBC decreased their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $464.69.

Linde Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $427.71 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $454.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $424.19. The firm has a market cap of $205.59 billion, a PE ratio of 33.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $350.60 and a twelve month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.42 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.