First Merchants Corp Sells 52 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

First Merchants Corp decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,320 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 52 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $8,507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. lifted its stake in Linde by 85.2% in the fourth quarter. Helios Capital Management PTE. Ltd. now owns 2,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the period. Channel Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 30.4% in the 4th quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $898,188,000 after purchasing an additional 46,843 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in shares of Linde by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,898,000 after purchasing an additional 5,021 shares during the period. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $625,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

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 note on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,832.22. The trade was a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,503 shares of company stock worth $4,306,843. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.5 %

LIN stock opened at $461.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.53 billion, a PE ratio of 33.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $410.69 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $434.42 and a 200 day moving average of $453.89.

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 net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.55 earnings per share for the current 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.