Exchange Capital Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Exchange Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,892 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 42 shares during the quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wrapmanager Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,999,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 192 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Fourpath Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,732,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Romano Brothers AND Company increased its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 2,009 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $841,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,285 shares of company stock worth $7,423,986 over the last ninety days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented 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 raised their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Up 2.0 %

Linde stock opened at $467.49 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $410.69 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $438.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $454.70.

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

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.