Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Cuts Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV trimmed its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 17.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,613 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,428 shares during the quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,079,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,261,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. AlTi Global Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $971,000. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 75.0% during the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $90,131,000 after buying an additional 82,952 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 9.6% during the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,841,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $468,360,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $477.63 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $468.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $459.69. The company has a market cap of $223.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.85 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.