Second Half Financial Partners LLC Invests $309,000 in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Second Half Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Linde PLC during Q1, purchasing 663 shares valued at approximately $309,000.
• Multiple hedge funds have increased their positions in Linde PLC, with Freemont Capital Pte Ltd making a substantial investment of over $2 billion last quarter.
• Linde recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, representing an annualized yield of 1.27%, affecting dividend payout ratio to 43.57%.

Second Half Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 663 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $309,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. North Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased 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 buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock traded down $3.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $463.10. 796,368 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,117,323. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $467.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $457.06. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Two research 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

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.