Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Stake Reduced by Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC trimmed its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 20.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 27,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,995 shares during the quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $11,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $410,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $260,000. Wrapmanager Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $426,000 after buying an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 1,358 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $506,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the period. Finally, Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 2,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,003,000 after acquiring an additional 252 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 77,948 shares of company stock worth $35,687,605 in the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on LIN. HSBC dropped their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of LIN stock traded up $3.27 on Friday, hitting $435.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,157,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,776,312. The stock has a market capitalization of $209.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $446.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $428.45. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.5 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.