Marietta Investment Partners LLC Sells 262 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Marietta Investment Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,010 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 262 shares during the quarter. Marietta Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,321,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of 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. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Linde by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

LIN stock opened at $471.91 on Monday. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $479.79. 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 firm has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $458.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $449.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Company 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.