McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. Raises Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,412 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 653 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $8,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 1,160.0% in the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.11.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $475.56 on Wednesday. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $452.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $448.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $223.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.94, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.97.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.24 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

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.