Sentry Investment Management LLC Reduces Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Sentry Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 42.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,340 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,005 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $639,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norden Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $315,000. Choreo LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 6.6% during the first quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 1,111 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $516,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 6.7% during the first quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 3,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,416,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its position in Linde by 2.5% during the first quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,284,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $302,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America raised their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $458.32 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $472.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $451.98. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $385.12 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $218.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.63 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.