Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Angeles Investment Advisors LLC

Angeles Investment Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 45.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 497 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 422 shares during the period. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $218,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Linde by 566.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after buying an additional 1,558,538 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Linde in the second quarter worth $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position in Linde by 91.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth $210,480,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Linde by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America increased their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $474.91 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $455.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $448.84. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $479.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.13%.

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.