Apollon Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 133.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,955 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 12,542 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $10,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,598,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,857,741,000 after purchasing an additional 554,480 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of Linde stock traded down $8.22 on Tuesday, reaching $460.56. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,263,695 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,972,631. The company has a market capitalization of $216.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $464.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $453.41. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.75 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business'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 directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business'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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded 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 research note on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Linde Company 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.