Hancock Whitney Corp Sells 272 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Hancock Whitney Corp lessened its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,026 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 272 shares during the quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $941,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 310.0% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, HSBC dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $477.25.

Linde Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded down $5.86 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $447.48. 585,675 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,973,535. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The company has a market capitalization of $215.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $438.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $439.19.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The business had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.13%.

Linde Company 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.