Bank of Montreal Can Has $464.36 Million Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bank of Montreal Can reduced its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,109,132 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 144,898 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.23% of Linde worth $464,360,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1,160.0% during the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates grew its stake in shares of Linde by 144.8% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Linde Stock Down 6.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $437.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $207.12 billion, a PE ratio of 32.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a one year low of $410.25 and a one year high of $487.49. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $458.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $453.85.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 44.09%.

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.