Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Has $488,000 Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 80.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,165 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $488,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1,160.0% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates grew its stake in shares of Linde by 144.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their target price 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 raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $437.96 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $207.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.18, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $410.69 and a twelve month high of $487.49. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average price is $458.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $453.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.09%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at $6,786,289.30. This trade represents a 31.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.