Fiera Capital Corp Sells 151,160 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Fiera Capital Corp reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 23.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 494,498 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 151,160 shares during the quarter. Fiera Capital Corp owned about 0.10% of Linde worth $216,991,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Members Trust Co raised its holdings in Linde by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 646 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,787 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $830,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 49.0% in the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank raised its holdings in Linde by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $393,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 966 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $421,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN traded down $2.65 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $476.86. 1,394,814 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,870,542. The company has a market cap of $229.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $483.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $462.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $449.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. Linde's quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. Linde's payout ratio is 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $484.18.

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.