Axa S.A. Sells 9,909 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Axa S.A. reduced its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 402,870 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 9,909 shares during the period. Axa S.A. owned about 0.08% of Linde worth $176,783,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group cut their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $479.35 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $459.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $449.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $480.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value 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 approximately $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.