Moody National Bank Trust Division Has $1.72 Million Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN)

Moody National Bank Trust Division trimmed its position in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,283 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 444 shares during the quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,724,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Linde by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,653,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,938,416,000 after buying an additional 689,308 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,135,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,487,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061,754 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,315,068,000 after purchasing an additional 488,655 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,078,119 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,460,112,000 after purchasing an additional 703,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 4,273,245 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,152,024,000 after purchasing an additional 479,117 shares in the last quarter. 78.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 4,060 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.17, for a total transaction of $1,462,290.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $3,036,953.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Linde from $370.00 to $378.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Linde from $355.00 to $385.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $346.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Linde from $375.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.67.

Linde Trading Down 2.3 %

Linde stock traded down $7.80 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $330.49. The stock had a trading volume of 5,702,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,840,606. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $162.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.84. Linde plc has a one year low of $262.47 and a one year high of $362.74. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $334.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $315.30.

Linde (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The basic materials company reported $3.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.25. Linde had a return on equity of 14.95% and a net margin of 12.43%. The firm had revenue of $7.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 13.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.275 per share. This represents a $5.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.17. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.82%.

Linde Company Profile

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Linde Plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It designs and builds equipment that produces industrial gases and offers customers a wide range of gas production and processing services such as olefin plants, natural gas plants, air separation plants, hydrogen and synthesis gas plants and other types of plants.