Allstate Corp Lowers Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Allstate Corp lowered its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 96 shares during the quarter. Allstate Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $625,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,066,825,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $1,892,774,000. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,672,000 after buying an additional 468,415 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth $168,636,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 33,201.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $169,189,000 after buying an additional 410,705 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $468.83.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded down $1.89 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $432.90. The company had a trading volume of 546,664 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,117,510. The business’s 50-day moving average is $448.43 and its 200-day moving average is $428.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market cap of $208.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $350.60 and a 52 week high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,948 shares of company stock valued at $35,687,605 over the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.