Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Lincoln Capital LLC

Lincoln Capital LLC decreased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 14,597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 51 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises about 1.5% of Lincoln Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Lincoln Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,778,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $3,066,825,000. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,672,000 after buying an additional 468,415 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 33,201.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $169,189,000 after buying an additional 410,705 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at about $171,607,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,282,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $526,743,000 after buying an additional 347,531 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. Citigroup cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Up 0.3 %

LIN traded up $1.52 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $441.74. 190,706 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,048,779. The company has a market cap of $212.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.15, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $358.37 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $435.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $433.60.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.42 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

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.