Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 235 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI reduced its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 30,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 235 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Linde were worth $12,587,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ziegler Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at approximately $233,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its position in shares of Linde by 0.4% during the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 17,713 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,595,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 3.8% during the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $853,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 5.5% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $922,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. 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. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $443.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $213.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $456.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $421.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.16 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. TD Cowen lifted 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. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

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.