Van ECK Associates Corp Sells 4,411 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Van ECK Associates Corp decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 20.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,890 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,411 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,937,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Carmel Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 122.6% in the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $29,000. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 310.0% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 42.2% in the third quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $460.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $423.60 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $455.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $422.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market cap of $204.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.86, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Linde 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.