First County Bank CT Invests $442,000 in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

First County Bank CT purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 950 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $442,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 53.6% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,571 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,842,000 after purchasing an additional 2,292 shares during the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,113,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Blueprint LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,507 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,725 shares of company stock valued at $5,385,750 over the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.1%

LIN stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $464.40. 4,344,668 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,962,702. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.12, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $451.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $447.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Linde's revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.75 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's payout ratio is 43.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $503.11.

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.