Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Zions Bancorporation N.A.

Zions Bancorporation N.A. trimmed its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 60.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 615 shares during the quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A.’s holdings in Linde were worth $173,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth about $33,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays raised their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $468.81 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $454.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $448.68. The company has a market capitalization of $223.86 billion, a PE ratio of 36.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $479.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.57 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were 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 directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is 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.