Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Holdings Trimmed by ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,031 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 30 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $492,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 49.0% in the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’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 transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $483.98 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $232.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.55, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $485.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $468.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $450.25.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

About Linde

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.