Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Sells 868 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,422 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 868 shares during the quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 35,634 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,635,000 after purchasing an additional 2,770 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $26,603,000. Symmetry Investments LP bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $490,000. Greystone Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Greystone Financial Group LLC now owns 1,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $442,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Icon Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $530,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the 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 directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $463.24 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $464.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $449.73. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $483.36. The firm has a market cap of $221.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.