M&G PLC Sells 14,351 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

M&G PLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 191,330 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 14,351 shares during the period. M&G PLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $90,885,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,558,016,000 after acquiring an additional 719,052 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in Linde by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,796,000 after purchasing an additional 373,012 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Linde by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,358,712,000 after purchasing an additional 64,078 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Linde by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,475,000 after purchasing an additional 361,664 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in Linde by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $679,370,000 after purchasing an additional 85,360 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total transaction of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at $11,487,629.58. This trade represents a 29.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Matthew White sold 86,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total value of $45,258,227.93. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 50,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,442,546.93. This represents a 63.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 1.0%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $520.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $238.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.57, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.67. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $487.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $494.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $387.78 and a 52 week high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.52 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.16 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.21 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be given a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on LIN shares. Evercore raised their price objective on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Bank of America upped their target price on Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Barclays upped their target price on Linde from $577.00 to $591.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered Linde from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, October 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $553.05.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases.

Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The company was formed in 2018 through the merger of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, bringing together businesses with long histories in industrial gases and engineering.