First National Trust Co Sells 5,828 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

First National Trust Co cut its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 43,988 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 5,828 shares during the quarter. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Linde were worth $18,066,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. SVB Wealth LLC lifted its position in Linde by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 3,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,410,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 6,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,345,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 29.0% during the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 17.5% during the third quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 1,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $589,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 3.3% during the third quarter. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,192 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $816,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $460.15.

Linde Price Performance

LIN traded up $3.98 on Friday, reaching $423.60. The stock had a trading volume of 2,657,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,803,659. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $455.47 and a 200-day moving average of $422.69. The company has a market capitalization of $204.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.5 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.