American Trust Trims Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

American Trust decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 14.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 15,283 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,657 shares during the period. Linde accounts for approximately 0.6% of American Trust’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. American Trust’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,096,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LIN. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 310.0% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $454.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,714,589 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,497,816. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $439.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $439.73. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 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 up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LIN. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. HSBC lowered their price target 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. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $477.25.

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.