Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Has $36.77 Million Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co cut its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 83,785 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 11,715 shares during the quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Linde were worth $36,766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the second quarter valued at $28,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 49.0% in the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded down $8.67 during trading on Friday, hitting $456.85. 2,012,129 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,897,746. Linde plc has a one year low of $361.02 and a one year high of $479.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $451.18 and its 200 day moving average is $447.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $219.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.57 EPS. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.