Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN)

Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) by 10.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,091 shares during the period. Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,409,138,000. Providence Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 35,747.9% during the first quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,828,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,398,000 after acquiring an additional 5,812,246 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Linde by 888.7% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,329,889,000 after acquiring an additional 3,363,112 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its stake in Linde by 4,122.9% during the first quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 3,112,289 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,106,232,000 after acquiring an additional 3,038,589 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 8.8% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 34,287,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,187,106,000 after acquiring an additional 2,768,390 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. HSBC lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $416.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $418.00 to $421.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $420.00 to $444.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $420.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $424.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 1,245 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $387.63, for a total transaction of $482,599.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,158,796.87. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 1,245 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $387.63, for a total transaction of $482,599.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,158,796.87. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 12,484 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $386.53, for a total value of $4,825,440.52. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 27,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,498,541.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Up 1.0 %

Linde stock traded up $4.11 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $412.38. The stock had a trading volume of 259,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,750,919. The company has a market capitalization of $199.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.08, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $382.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $377.11. Linde plc has a one year low of $302.17 and a one year high of $414.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

Linde (NYSE:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The basic materials company reported $3.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.57 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 18.44% and a return on equity of 16.59%. The business had revenue of $8.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 14.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, December 4th will be issued a $1.275 dividend. This represents a $5.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 1st. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.11%.

About Linde

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia 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.