Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Decreases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. trimmed its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,220,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 21,137 shares during the period. Linde comprises about 4.0% of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Linde were worth $535,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 566.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 91.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $210,480,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Citigroup upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $468.81 on Monday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $479.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $454.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $448.66. The company has a market cap of $223.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.37, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.57 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.