Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. Invests $2.75 Million in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 6,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,752,000. Linde makes up about 1.5% of Deane Retirement Strategies Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 9,873 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,055,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Northstar Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Northstar Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,024 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,242,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. IFG Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 79.0% in the fourth quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 1,090 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $448,000 after acquiring an additional 481 shares in the last quarter. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $257,000. Finally, PFG Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth approximately $210,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded down $2.38 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $463.85. The company had a trading volume of 492,679 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,391,281. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.00, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $348.38 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $436.71 and its 200 day moving average is $409.21.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $448.93.

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.