Fiera Capital Corp Reduces Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Fiera Capital Corp reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 17.6% during Q1, now holding 368,275 shares valued at approximately $171.48 million.
• Insider transactions included a significant sale by VP Sean Durbin, who sold 7,261 shares for over $3.31 million, decreasing his ownership by 47.11%.
• Linde reported $3.95 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, with a revenue of $8.11 billion, slightly below analyst estimates of $8.24 billion.

Fiera Capital Corp lowered its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 17.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 368,275 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 78,590 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp owned about 0.08% of Linde worth $171,484,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on LIN shares. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Linde Trading Down 0.5%

LIN traded down $2.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $457.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,381,896 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,122,465. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $215.56 billion, a PE ratio of 33.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.96. The business's 50-day moving average is $467.14 and its 200-day moving average is $457.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other 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 value 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 completion of the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.