Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 215 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd lessened its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 63,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 215 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Linde were worth $27,927,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $468.81 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $454.53 and a 200 day moving average of $448.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The firm has a market cap of $223.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.37, a PEG ratio of 2.91 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Linde’s payout ratio is 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.