Granite Group Advisors LLC Sells 169 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Granite Group Advisors LLC cut its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 19.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 686 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 169 shares during the quarter. Granite Group Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Drive Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $204,000. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 1,502 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $629,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Clarendon Private LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $833,000. Consolidated Investment Group LLC lifted its position in Linde by 48.0% in the 4th quarter. Consolidated Investment Group LLC now owns 7,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,099,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Affinity Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Affinity Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,913 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,569,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds purchased 100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $441.34 per share, with a total value of $44,134.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,832.22. This trade represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $439.25 on Monday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $435.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $453.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

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.