Marks Group Wealth Management Inc Sells 572 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Marks Group Wealth Management Inc lessened its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,142 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 572 shares during the period. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings in Linde were worth $897,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its holdings in Linde by 108.7% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $374,086,000 after buying an additional 408,659 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.7% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 2,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Linde by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 60,292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,751,000 after acquiring an additional 8,659 shares during the last quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,737 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,213,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 528 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $458.56 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $434.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $453.86. The stock has a market cap of $218.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $410.69 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds bought 100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 233 shares in the company, valued at $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,503 shares of company stock valued at $4,306,843 over the last quarter. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

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.