Vestor Capital LLC Decreases Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Vestor Capital LLC decreased its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 139 shares during the period. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,079,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 62.9% in the second quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 101 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $457.31 on Monday. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $385.12 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a fifty day moving average of $472.87 and a 200-day moving average of $451.90. The company has a market capitalization of $218.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on LIN. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

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.