Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Sells 198 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA reduced its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,191 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 198 shares during the quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,430,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Linde by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,551,000 after buying an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,857,741,000 after buying an additional 554,480 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,128,233,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Down 0.1%

LIN stock opened at $463.79 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $218.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $458.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $449.63. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during 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%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three 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.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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