Donaldson Capital Management LLC Has $517,000 Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Donaldson Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 48.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,043 shares during the period. Donaldson Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $517,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 122.6% in the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in Linde during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $443.18. 1,583,773 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,507,545. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $456.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $420.75. The stock has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.16 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $1.39 dividend. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. TD Cowen upped their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Mizuho upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $456.79.

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.