Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 142 shares during the quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,120,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Knuff & Co LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $209,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 3,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,305,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rockingstone Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 8,340 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,883,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $510.40.

Linde Stock Down 0.6%

Linde stock opened at $460.20 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $458.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $449.35. The company has a market cap of $216.63 billion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.97. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.75 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.