MetLife Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• MetLife Investment Management LLC has reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 1.9%, bringing its total shares owned to 123,756, valued at approximately $57.63 million as of the latest reporting period.
• Analysts have recently raised price targets for Linde PLC, with JPMorgan Chase increasing it from $470 to $475 while Citigroup upgraded its rating from "neutral" to "buy" with a target of $535.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, set to be paid on September 18, 2023, which represents an annual yield of 1.2% with a payout ratio of 42.67%.

MetLife Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 123,756 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 2,354 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $57,626,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,097,793,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 58,312.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Linde by 172.4% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,407,637 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,121,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,702 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Linde by 18.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LIN. UBS Group upped their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $0.79 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $482.71. 2,259,628 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,496,574. The company has a market cap of $226.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $469.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $461.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.67%.

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.