Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 98 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Wrapmanager Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $709,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 272 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 4,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,999,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fourpath Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 4,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,732,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $448.00 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $454.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $450.06. 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 $211.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on LIN. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $498.00.

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.