Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. Sells 310 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 18,295 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 310 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises approximately 1.5% of Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,514,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LIN. TradeLink Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $957,000 after purchasing an additional 607 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $760,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares during the period. Finally, Ergoteles LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $6,682,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $456.79.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $446.30. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,831,208 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,488,572. The company has a 50 day moving average of $453.89 and a 200 day moving average of $418.61. The stock has a market cap of $214.93 billion, a PE ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.16 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Corporate 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.