Procyon Advisors LLC Buys 559 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Procyon Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 5.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,300 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 559 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $5,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Consilio Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at about $224,000. Affinity Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 1.2% in the first quarter. Affinity Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,045 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,143,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Curat Global LLC bought a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at about $263,000. Generali Investments Management Co LLC bought a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at about $1,496,000. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC grew its position in Linde by 22.1% in the first quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 3,258 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,517,000 after acquiring an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $503.11.

Linde Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Linde stock traded up $2.45 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $472.71. The company had a trading volume of 1,352,718 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,963,782. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $452.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $448.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $222.52 billion, a PE ratio of 34.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.97. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.57%.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the 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 now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.