Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by Keybank National Association OH

Keybank National Association OH trimmed its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 181 shares during the quarter. Keybank National Association OH’s holdings in Linde were worth $20,698,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Linde by 5.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Linde by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,157 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,797,156,000 after acquiring an additional 40,931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.9% during the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,401,590 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,577,624,000 after purchasing an additional 61,829 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.00.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $429.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $486.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $466.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $464.58. The firm has a market cap of $201.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.85 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.