92,036 Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by Bahl & Gaynor LLC

Bahl & Gaynor LLC trimmed its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 147,713 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 92,036 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $70,112,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total value of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,487,629.58. This represents a 29.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, 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 J. White sold 86,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total transaction of $45,258,227.93. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 50,733 shares in the company, valued at $26,442,546.93. The trade was 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 Stock Up 0.3%

LIN stock opened at $521.78 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $487.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $495.12. The stock has a market cap of $239.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.67, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.52 by $0.07. The company 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.21 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price objective on shares of Linde and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Berenberg Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $553.05.

Linde 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.