Bath Savings Trust Co Sells 42 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bath Savings Trust Co reduced its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 457 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 42 shares during the period. Bath Savings Trust Co’s holdings in Linde were worth $218,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $830,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Linde by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 49.0% in the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its stake in Linde by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC grew its stake in Linde by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 966 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. 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 report on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $469.44 on Wednesday. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $483.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $225.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $464.43 and a 200-day moving average of $449.71.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

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