Archer Investment Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Archer Investment Corp decreased its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 14.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,232 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 213 shares during the quarter. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $574,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 211,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $88,505,000 after buying an additional 1,320 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,261,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 300.3% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,948,000 after buying an additional 19,618 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in shares of Linde by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 22,235 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,287,000 after buying an additional 4,162 shares during the period. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 55,009 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,031,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $518.80.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the vice president owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.7%

LIN traded up $3.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $464.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 434,263 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,966,439. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $464.40 and its 200-day moving average is $453.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.69, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.96. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

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.