American Trust Has $6.35 Million Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

American Trust cut its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 803 shares during the quarter. American Trust’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,354,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC raised its stake in Linde by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC now owns 3,244 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,332,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $442,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 40,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,789,000 after purchasing an additional 689 shares during the period. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,423 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $995,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holderness Investments Co. grew its position in Linde by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 1,863 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $765,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LIN. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’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 sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $475.02 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a one year low of $361.02 and a one year high of $483.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $462.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $449.63.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid 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 dividend 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.