CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Trims Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA reduced its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,247 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 114 shares during the period. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Linde were worth $595,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558,538 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 91.6% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth $210,480,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its holdings in Linde by 108.7% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $374,086,000 after acquiring an additional 408,659 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $474.04 on Monday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $465.85 and its 200 day moving average is $449.80. The stock has a market cap of $227.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.57 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.