First National Trust Co Has $16.65 Million Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

First National Trust Co trimmed its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,755 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,533 shares during the quarter. First National Trust Co's holdings in Linde were worth $16,649,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on LIN. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Down 0.2%

LIN traded down $0.85 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $459.41. 2,219,331 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,128,351. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $467.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $457.33.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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 given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.57%.

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.