Truist Financial Corp Sells 17,440 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Truist Financial Corp reduced its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 17,440 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $48,527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 122.6% during the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE increased its stake in shares of Linde by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $443.18 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $456.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $421.04. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.16 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on LIN. Mizuho raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

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.