Apollon Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 70.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,520 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 2,285 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth approximately $400,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,672,000 after acquiring an additional 468,415 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 1,359 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $1,821,000. Finally, Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 5,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,179,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $464.69.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $3.38 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $430.00. The company had a trading volume of 1,549,456 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,218,466. The company has a market cap of $206.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.10, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a fifty day moving average of $455.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $423.74. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.