Fullcircle Wealth LLC Cuts Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Fullcircle Wealth LLC lessened its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 25.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,966 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 682 shares during the period. Fullcircle Wealth LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $881,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,598,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Linde by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,857,741,000 after purchasing an additional 554,480 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of LIN stock traded up $0.36 on Tuesday, hitting $469.95. 1,627,213 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,971,054. 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 company's fifty day simple moving average is $461.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $451.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.75 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 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. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $515.90.

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.