Washington Trust Bank Sells 578 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Washington Trust Bank lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 578 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,508,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Linde by 46.9% in the first 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 during the period. Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 40.7% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after purchasing an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors grew its position in Linde by 23.6% in the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its position in Linde by 4.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in Linde by 28.7% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,319,000 after acquiring an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on LIN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Linde stock traded up $2.82 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $465.45. The company had a trading volume of 81,353 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,828,854. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $472.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $452.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $221.63 billion, a PE ratio of 35.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $389.14 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

About Linde

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.