Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Has $24 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 58,430 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,676 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $23,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Linde by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,103,185,000 after purchasing an additional 372,780 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,182,870,000 after buying an additional 354,506 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Linde by 6.0% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,315,068,000 after buying an additional 488,655 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,409,138,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,508,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,480,277,000 after acquiring an additional 479,188 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.2 %

LIN traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $446.79. 1,199,440 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,273,072. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $452.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $417.35. Linde plc has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company has a market cap of $215.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $456.79.

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.