Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co Trims Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co lessened its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 16.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,892 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,520 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co's holdings in Linde were worth $3,304,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,901,853,000. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after buying an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 56,467.9% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,097,982 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $459,692,000 after buying an additional 1,096,041 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 2,293.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 782,461 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $327,593,000 after buying an additional 749,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $308,251,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $503.11.

Linde Price Performance

LIN traded up $5.94 on Wednesday, hitting $452.99. 473,887 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,928,415. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $452.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $448.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Linde plc has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $213.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Linde's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.75 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total value of $3,117,142.84. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.