Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Has $6.79 Million Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund decreased its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,272 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,787,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 566.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after buying an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 47,830.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $446,377,000 after acquiring an additional 934,123 shares during the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $210,480,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its holdings in Linde by 108.7% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $374,086,000 after purchasing an additional 408,659 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $449.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $213.84 billion, a PE ratio of 34.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $396.07 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $470.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $452.64.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors 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 yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.