Insider Selling: Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) CFO Sells $45,258,227.93 in Stock

Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) CFO Matthew White sold 86,833 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total value of $45,258,227.93. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 50,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,442,546.93. This trade represents a 63.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $515.25 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $387.78 and a 52 week high of $548.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $486.57 and its 200 day moving average is $494.34. The company has a market cap of $236.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.52 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.16 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.21 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 42.52%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,558,016,000 after buying an additional 719,052 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 13.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,796,000 after acquiring an additional 373,012 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,358,712,000 after acquiring an additional 64,078 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Linde by 28.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $805,475,000 after acquiring an additional 361,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in Linde by 6.6% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $679,370,000 after acquiring an additional 85,360 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. DZ Bank reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Thursday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Linde from $549.00 to $568.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Berenberg Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Evercore raised their price target on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $553.05.

About Linde

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases.

Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The company was formed in 2018 through the merger of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, bringing together businesses with long histories in industrial gases and engineering.