Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC Cuts Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 28 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises about 1.8% of Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $8,641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP acquired a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Linde by 46.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after acquiring an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on LIN shares. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 0.6 %

LIN opened at $471.91 on Monday. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $479.79. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $458.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $449.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a PE ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. 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.