Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Sells 753 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. decreased its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 10.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,598 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 753 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.'s holdings in Linde were worth $3,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. May Hill Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 6.6% in the first quarter. May Hill Capital LLC now owns 658 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 18.0% in the first quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 1,402 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $653,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Hourglass Capital LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $935,000. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 117,861 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $54,881,000 after acquiring an additional 4,564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Linde by 41.7% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 14,327 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $6,671,000 after acquiring an additional 4,214 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.2%

LIN traded down $0.93 during trading on Thursday, reaching $470.34. 2,237,051 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,973,993. The company's fifty day moving average price is $462.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $452.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.40 billion, a PE ratio of 34.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released 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 net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.75 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. UBS Group lifted their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $518.80.

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.