Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Has $2.44 Million Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,948 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,443,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 122.6% during the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth $26,000. Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth $29,000. Halpern Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 309.5% during the third quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 86 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FWL Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $448.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $7.44 on Friday, hitting $464.70. 1,570,311 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,690,232. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.79 billion, a PE ratio of 36.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $445.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $413.08.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.16 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.13%.

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.