Grimes & Company Inc. Sells 162 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Grimes & Company Inc. cut its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 16.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 823 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 162 shares during the quarter. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $382,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Linde by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $575,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 2,316 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $951,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Holderness Investments Co. increased its stake in Linde by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 1,863 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $765,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 2,573 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,057,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, HSBC decreased their price objective on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

Linde stock traded down $1.41 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $438.81. 2,470,164 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,763,077. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $435.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $433.91. The company has a market cap of $210.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $358.37 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.