Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. Sells 1,144 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. decreased its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 63,369 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,144 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $29,508,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted 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 worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.5% in the first quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 999 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $450,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Linde by 0.8% in the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,207 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,493,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 3.0% in the first quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 816 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rockingstone Advisors LLC boosted 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 worth $3,883,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. 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 on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN traded down $0.85 on Friday, reaching $459.41. 2,219,331 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,128,351. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $216.25 billion, a PE ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $467.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $457.33. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. Linde's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.85 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business'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 sale, the vice president directly owned 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business's 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. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.