Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Has $12.59 Million Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI cut its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 30,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 235 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Linde were worth $12,587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at $1,892,774,000. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the third quarter worth about $168,636,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Linde by 33,201.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $169,189,000 after purchasing an additional 410,705 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Linde by 17.8% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,592,343 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $973,865,000 after purchasing an additional 391,153 shares during the period. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its position in Linde by 53.1% in the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,033,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $384,681,000 after purchasing an additional 358,492 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. TD Cowen raised their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $443.18 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $456.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $421.04. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $350.60 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The firm has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.16 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business 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. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

Linde Company 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.