Broadway Wealth Solutions Inc. Purchases New Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Broadway Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 501 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 17,056 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,141,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $2,901,853,000. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $306,585,000. Finally, Pragma Gestao DE Patrimonio Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,396,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This trade represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,159 shares of company stock worth $5,603,843 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $464.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $455.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $454.31. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $410.69 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.78 billion, a PE ratio of 34.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on LIN. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

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.