M&T Bank Corp Increases Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 58,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,489 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $24,093,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LIN. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,182,870,000 after acquiring an additional 354,506 shares during the period. Winder Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at about $1,892,774,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Linde by 2.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,081,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,891,976,000 after buying an additional 123,174 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,960,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,102,475,000 after buying an additional 75,000 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,766,608 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,030,146,000 after buying an additional 9,541 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on LIN. Mizuho raised their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $460.15.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded up $3.98 on Friday, hitting $423.60. 2,657,419 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,803,659. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $455.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $422.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $204.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.86, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.42 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.