Linde plc (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,800,000 shares, an increase of 10.1% from the August 31st total of 3,450,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,200,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde
Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE acquired a new position in Linde during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Steward Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at $31,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Linde by 94.6% during the second quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Linde by 58.0% during the second quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at $32,000. 77.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 10th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Linde from $355.00 to $320.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Linde from $390.00 to $355.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 16th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Linde from $370.00 to $369.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Linde from €370.00 ($377.55) to €355.00 ($362.24) and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.60.
Linde Price Performance
Shares of Linde stock traded up $6.23 during trading on Monday, hitting $275.82. The stock had a trading volume of 3,080,285 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,213,771. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $137.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.97, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a fifty day moving average of $289.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $300.95. Linde has a fifty-two week low of $262.47 and a fifty-two week high of $352.18.
Linde (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The basic materials company reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.12. Linde had a return on equity of 13.41% and a net margin of 10.88%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.70 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Linde will post 11.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Linde Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $1.17 per share. This represents a $4.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 1st. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 67.83%.
About Linde
Linde plc operates as an industrial gas and engineering company in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia 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.