Sentry Investment Management LLC Has $1.05 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,559 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 275 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,051,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in Linde by 1.9% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,103,185,000 after acquiring an additional 372,780 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,182,870,000 after buying an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 6.0% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,315,068,000 after buying an additional 488,655 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $2,409,138,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 7.9% in the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,508,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,480,277,000 after buying an additional 479,188 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $2.56 during trading on Monday, hitting $444.85. 557,156 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,281,125. The company has a market cap of $214.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $450.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $416.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $350.60 and a 52 week high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.16 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. 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. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen raised their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following 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. In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde 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.