FineMark National Bank & Trust Decreases Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

FineMark National Bank & Trust trimmed its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 235 shares during the quarter. FineMark National Bank & Trust’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. grew its holdings in Linde by 85.2% during the 4th quarter. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. now owns 2,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. Channel Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after buying an additional 1,723 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in shares of Linde by 6.7% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,898,000 after buying an additional 5,021 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $898,188,000 after buying an additional 46,843 shares during the period. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $625,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $459.09 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $410.69 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company’s 50 day moving average is $453.71 and its 200 day moving average is $454.18.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

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.