Insider Selling: Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) VP Sells 1,987 Shares of Stock

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded down $1.57 on Tuesday, hitting $458.76. 830,374 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,941,240. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company has a 50 day moving average of $451.20 and a 200-day moving average of $447.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.95 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in Linde by 16.5% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 122,188 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $56,897,000 after purchasing an additional 17,327 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $385,000. SCS Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $360,000. Woodline Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Linde by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 40,228 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $18,732,000 after buying an additional 11,633 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 113.7% in the 1st quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 215,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $100,511,000 after buying an additional 114,858 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $503.11.

About Linde

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.