AGF Management Ltd. Has $135.07 Million Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• AGF Management Ltd. has reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 7.7%, selling 24,343 shares, and now owns about 290,067 shares valued at approximately $135 million.
• Linde reported earnings of $4.09 per share for its latest quarter, exceeding expectations, with revenue of $8.50 billion, translating to a 2.3% year-over-year growth.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50, representing an annualized yield of 1.3%, with a dividend payout ratio of 42.67%.

AGF Management Ltd. cut its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 7.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 290,067 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 24,343 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd. owned about 0.06% of Linde worth $135,067,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $2.40 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $475.63. 1,797,807 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,486,557. The company's 50 day moving average is $467.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $459.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.83, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.85 EPS. The company's revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given 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 is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's 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 owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 59,557 shares of company stock worth $28,037,479 in the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on LIN. UBS Group upped their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

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.