Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. Reduces Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. reduced its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 106,490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,380 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises about 2.1% of Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $46,729,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after buying an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 46.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde 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 owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $471.91 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $458.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $449.20. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $479.79. The company has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.61, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.57 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Linde 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.