FSM Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

FSM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 32.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 686 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1,160.0% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $477.17 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $224.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $460.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $450.38. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $515.90.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.