NFP Retirement Inc. Makes New $205,000 Investment in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

NFP Retirement Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. North Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 59,557 shares of company stock valued at $28,037,479. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $475.63 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $467.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $459.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.85 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

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.