Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC has reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 16.5%, decreasing its ownership to 26,784 shares, valued at approximately $12.47 million.
• Linde reported $3.95 EPS for its latest quarter, beating estimates and showing a slight year-over-year revenue increase despite a slight miss compared to expectations.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, which translates to an annualized yield of 1.27%, with a payout ratio of 43.57%.

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 16.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,784 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 5,292 shares during the period. Linde makes up 0.9% of Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $12,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth $285,000. Drive Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 63.8% during the first quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 796 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $371,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 10.3% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 60,803 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $28,312,000 after purchasing an additional 5,689 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of Linde by 15.7% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 61,197 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $28,495,000 after purchasing an additional 8,292 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 6.2% during the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 34,236 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $15,942,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $471.49 on Friday. The business's fifty day moving average price is $466.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $455.62. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.94 billion, a PE ratio of 34.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.96. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.75 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid 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 1.27%. Linde's payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company's 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, 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 owned by corporate 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.

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