American Trust Trims Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

American Trust trimmed its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. 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 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 49.0% in the first quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LIN. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays upped their target price 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. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $475.02 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $483.36. The company has a market cap of $228.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $462.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $449.63.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 currently 43.13%.

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.