Vanguard Group Inc. Decreases Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 0.1%, holding approximately 9.42% of the company, equating to about $20.65 billion in value.
• Several institutional investors, including Treasurer of the State of North Carolina and Sterling Capital Management LLC, have recently increased their positions in Linde, highlighting a strong interest from hedge funds.
• Linde's latest quarterly earnings report showed $4.09 earnings per share, slightly beating analyst expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, representing a 1.3% dividend yield.

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 0.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,346,355 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 47,598 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 9.42% of Linde worth $20,649,437,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LIN. North Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 59,557 shares of company stock worth $28,037,479. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of LIN traded up $2.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $472.42. The company had a trading volume of 939,239 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,504,921. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company has a market capitalization of $221.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $467.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $458.56. 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 earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.85 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

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.