Legal & General Group Plc Has $1.51 Billion Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,430,562 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 39,375 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.72% of Linde worth $1,505,439,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Linde by 6.2% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,186,692 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $520,736,000 after purchasing an additional 69,155 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 2,377.4% in the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 34,287 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $15,045,000 after buying an additional 32,903 shares in the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Linde by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 6,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,962,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,513,551,000 after acquiring an additional 15,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake in Linde by 14.8% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 708,509 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $290,087,000 after acquiring an additional 91,101 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $481.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 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 plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $482.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $460.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $449.82.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, 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 note 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’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 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. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.