Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Agate Pass Investment Management LLC

Agate Pass Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 35 shares during the period. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,102,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after purchasing an additional 138,585 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,830,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,162,708,000 after purchasing an additional 64,362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Linde by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,210,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $823,174,000 after buying an additional 129,610 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $468.83.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded up $0.93 on Thursday, reaching $439.35. 375,204 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,056,884. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $211.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.95. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $358.37 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The company’s 50-day moving average is $435.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $433.60.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. 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.