Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Stake Cut by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,128,712 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 173,716 shares during the period. Linde comprises about 1.1% of Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA's holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 1.51% of Linde worth $3,319,413,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $518.80.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $468.81 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $463.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $453.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

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