Guillermo Bichara Sells 4,385 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $449.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $464.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $455.18. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $396.07 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $214.01 billion, a PE ratio of 34.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.63 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its stake in Linde by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the period. Waverton Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in Linde by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 196,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,457,000 after acquiring an additional 1,811 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in Linde by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 9,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Linde by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,616,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc raised its stake in Linde by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. M&G Plc now owns 185,903 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $81,611,000 after acquiring an additional 2,252 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

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.