Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Buys 1,033 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 196,295 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,033 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Linde were worth $93,605,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 47,830.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $446,377,000 after buying an additional 934,123 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 91.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $210,480,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price 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 upped their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America upped their price target 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $460.00 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $219.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.72, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.96. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $385.12 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $472.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $451.90.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.