Insider Selling: Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) VP Sells 6,782 Shares of Stock

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This represents a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Linde Price Performance

LIN traded down $3.90 during trading on Friday, hitting $458.00. 1,939,256 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,250,087. The company has a market cap of $218.08 billion, a PE ratio of 33.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $436.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $454.23. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $410.69 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Linde by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,598,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,750 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Linde by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,857,741,000 after purchasing an additional 554,480 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,128,233,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on LIN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

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.