Richardson Financial Services Inc. Sells 32 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Richardson Financial Services Inc. lowered its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 32 shares during the quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $516,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective 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. Bank of America boosted 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. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $467.03 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $224.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $456.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $449.13. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors 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 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Linde 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.