NorthRock Partners LLC Sells 407 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

NorthRock Partners LLC lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 19.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 407 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $792,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Linde by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,593,000 after buying an additional 15,393 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after buying an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors boosted its stake in Linde by 23.6% in the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in Linde by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 28.7% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,319,000 after acquiring an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays raised their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $490.75.

Linde Stock Up 0.4 %

LIN traded up $1.96 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $460.28. 164,811 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,825,887. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $472.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $451.98. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $385.12 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $219.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.63 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s 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 owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.