Ledyard National Bank Buys 417 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Ledyard National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,079 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the period. Ledyard National Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1,160.0% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on LIN. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $510.40.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $459.75 on Tuesday. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $216.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $457.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $449.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were 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 $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.