Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 42 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,298,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kozak & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its holdings in Linde by 144.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 71 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 1,733.3% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $436.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $207.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $396.07 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $436.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $452.82.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.63 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $495.75.

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.