Bleakley Financial Group LLC Sells 347 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 10,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 347 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,118,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. TradeLink Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at about $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 36.4% in the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $566,000 after buying an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 25.4% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $957,000 after buying an additional 607 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 15.3% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $760,000 after buying an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at about $6,682,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $461.67 on Tuesday. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $350.60 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.33 billion, a PE ratio of 36.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $447.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $414.11.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.16 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho lifted their price target on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $448.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.