R Squared Ltd Has $689,000 Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

R Squared Ltd reduced its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 73.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,201 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises 0.7% of R Squared Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. R Squared Ltd’s holdings in Linde were worth $689,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. North Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abound Financial LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded 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 research note on Monday, June 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

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

Linde Stock Down 0.2%

LIN stock opened at $459.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $467.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $457.55. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.25 billion, a PE ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.57%.

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.