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

Axa S.A. cut its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 402,870 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 9,909 shares during the period. Axa S.A.’s holdings in Linde were worth $176,783,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Members Trust Co raised its stake in Linde by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $300,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the first quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $830,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, CNB Bank lifted its holdings in Linde by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.4 %

LIN stock opened at $479.35 on Wednesday. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $480.76. The company has a market capitalization of $228.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $459.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $449.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

About Linde

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.