Benjamin Edwards Inc. Sells 1,442 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

Error: Response status code does not indicate success: 503 (Service Unavailable).

Benjamin Edwards Inc. lowered its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 5.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,450 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,442 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $11,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 59,557 shares of company stock worth $28,037,479. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Linde stock traded up $2.85 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $473.23. 1,347,678 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,482,364. The company has a 50 day moving average of $467.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $459.22. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $221.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.92.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. Linde's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.67%.

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.