Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Decreases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp decreased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 266,862 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,769 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $111,727,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth $252,000. Nwam LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth about $495,000. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 6.6% in the third quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,493,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 212.0% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 986 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,000 after buying an additional 670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $10,489,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,786,289.30. This trade represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 over the last ninety days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Up 0.2 %

LIN stock opened at $459.09 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $453.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $454.18. The company has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $410.69 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

Linde Company 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.