Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Trust Co. of Vermont

Trust Co. of Vermont reduced its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 850 shares during the quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,598,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Linde by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC now owns 765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,824,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 28.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,318 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $382,000. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Linde by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 419,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $172,407,000 after purchasing an additional 82,698 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. HSBC decreased their price objective on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Six research 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 company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $468.83.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of LIN stock traded down $0.65 during trading on Monday, hitting $436.30. 191,559 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,061,834. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $437.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $431.78. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $358.37 and a twelve month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its 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 the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.