Donaldson Capital Management LLC Decreases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Donaldson Capital Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 60 shares during the quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $886,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. TradeLink Capital LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in Linde by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $957,000 after acquiring an additional 607 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its position in Linde by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $760,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $6,682,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. TD Cowen upped their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Mizuho upped their target price on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $0.28 on Tuesday, hitting $445.03. 209,268 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,267,581. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $214.32 billion, a PE ratio of 35.30, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The company’s fifty day moving average is $451.50 and its 200 day moving average is $416.84.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.16 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

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.