Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Sells 81 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,611 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 81 shares during the period. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co purchased a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,480,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,045,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 156.3% in the 4th quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,146,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,679,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Mizuho increased their price target on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $446.79 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $215.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $452.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $417.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $1.39 dividend. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.