Centennial Bank AR Sells 200 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Centennial Bank AR reduced its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,619 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Centennial Bank AR’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,149,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 49.0% during 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. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group dropped their price target on 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 restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $475.02 on Wednesday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $462.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $449.63. The stock has a market cap of $228.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect 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 paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 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.