Howard Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Howard Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 10.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,996 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,475 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $6,051,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abound Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group boosted 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. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $0.85 during trading on Friday, hitting $459.41. The stock had a trading volume of 2,219,331 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,128,351. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $216.25 billion, a PE ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.96. The firm's fifty day moving average is $467.14 and its 200 day moving average is $457.33. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. 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 currently 43.57%.

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.