MCF Advisors LLC Sells 33 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

MCF Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 19.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 140 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 33 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $67,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,744,033,000 after purchasing an additional 405,952 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 0.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,513,551,000 after buying an additional 15,187 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in Linde by 7.6% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,112,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,365,647,000 after buying an additional 218,746 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 8.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,993,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $874,908,000 after buying an additional 160,355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $906,730,000 after acquiring an additional 23,155 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded down $0.70 during trading on Friday, reaching $473.76. 2,458,462 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,824,661. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $366.12 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $226.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $472.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $451.24.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.57 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.31%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

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.