Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co Sells 484 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,834 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 484 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased 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. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $471.66 on Wednesday. Linde plc has a one year low of $361.02 and a one year high of $479.79. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $456.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $449.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.