Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has significantly reduced its position in Linde PLC by 92.0%, holding only 3,805 shares after selling 43,473 shares in the first quarter.
• Linde reported a quarterly earnings of $4.09 EPS, exceeding analysts' expectations of $4.03, with a revenue of $8.50 billion compared to estimates of $8.35 billion.
• The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, with an annualized dividend yield of 1.3%, to be paid on September 18th to shareholders of record.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 92.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,805 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 43,473 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $1,772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Linde by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its stake in Linde by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $28,662,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 80.4% during the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $943,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its stake in Linde by 32.9% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 1,645 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $689,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, 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 transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.5%

NASDAQ LIN traded up $2.44 on Tuesday, hitting $469.84. 1,690,929 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,571,483. 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 fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $220.31 billion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $467.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $458.15.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

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.