Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. Sells 77 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. lowered its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,416 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 77 shares during the quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,515,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 310.0% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. 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 MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $464.25.

Linde Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of LIN stock traded up $9.55 on Tuesday, hitting $447.73. The company had a trading volume of 463,234 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,015,534. The firm has a market cap of $215.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $434.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $435.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its 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. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.