Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Sold by Magnetar Financial LLC

Magnetar Financial LLC trimmed its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 61.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,295 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 5,232 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group lifted its holdings in Linde by 655.7% in the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $245,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,897,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock traded up $8.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $451.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,307,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,472,236. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $437.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $438.15.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup lifted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group cut their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $464.25.

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.