636 Shares in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Acquired by Lord & Richards Wealth Management LLC

Lord & Richards Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 636 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $296,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 34.9% in the fourth 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 period. Rockingstone Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.3% in the first quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 8,340 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,883,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 20.2% in the first quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,448 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,700,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebrook Private Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc. now owns 527 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde 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 value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, 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 the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $1.62 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $461.29. 1,514,152 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,971,862. 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 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $217.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $464.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $453.45.

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 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.75 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's payout ratio is 43.57%.

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.