U S Global Investors Inc. Sells 1,200 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

U S Global Investors Inc. cut its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 60.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 800 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,200 shares during the quarter. U S Global Investors Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Linde by 21.4% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 162,676 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $71,920,000 after purchasing an additional 28,635 shares during the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp lifted its holdings in Linde by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 1,125 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $524,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in Linde by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 241,402 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $112,410,000 after purchasing an additional 46,201 shares during the last quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $228,000. Finally, Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.9% during the first quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 246,512 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $114,786,000 after buying an additional 13,629 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded down $0.67 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $463.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,634,344 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,972,547. 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 firm has a market cap of $218.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.68, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.97. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $458.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $449.70.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.75 earnings per share. Linde's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $510.40.

Linde 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.