Short Interest in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Increases By 5.8%

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,920,000 shares, an increase of 5.8% from the July 15th total of 4,650,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,650,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Linde by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Linde from $475.00 to $477.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. HSBC decreased their price objective on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 0.4 %

LIN stock opened at $458.58 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.97 billion, a PE ratio of 35.58, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.94. Linde has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $443.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $443.34.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

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.