Prio Wealth Limited Partnership Reduces Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Prio Wealth Limited Partnership trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,085 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 345 shares during the quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,987,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in Linde by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,624,462,000 after purchasing an additional 138,585 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,513,551,000 after purchasing an additional 15,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Linde by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,112,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,365,647,000 after purchasing an additional 218,746 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on LIN. Bank of America boosted their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. 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 note on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $475.02 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization 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 twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $483.36. 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 has a 50-day moving average of $462.66 and a 200 day moving average of $449.63.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. Linde’s payout ratio 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.