Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Clarius Group LLC

Clarius Group LLC trimmed its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 70 shares during the quarter. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $996,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after buying an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 46.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,593,000 after buying an additional 15,393 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 40.7% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after buying an additional 2,337 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 25,952 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,659,000 after buying an additional 5,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Choate Investment Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 23.6% during the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after buying an additional 3,437 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded up $4.26 on Friday, hitting $473.68. 102,046 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,843,204. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $483.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.18 billion, a PE ratio of 35.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $465.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $449.99.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.