Xponance Inc. Sells 4,445 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Xponance Inc. reduced its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,140 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,445 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $29,462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 49.0% in the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in 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 firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $471.91 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The stock has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $458.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $449.20.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend 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.