Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 8,260 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 9.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 99,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,260 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $43,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Linde by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 522,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $229,104,000 after buying an additional 41,625 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 1,232.9% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 14,808 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,366,000 after purchasing an additional 13,697 shares during the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.7% during the second quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 7,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,101,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 12,288 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,392,000 after purchasing an additional 1,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trium Capital LLP boosted its position in shares of Linde by 29.1% in the 2nd quarter. Trium Capital LLP now owns 4,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,039 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reduced their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $463.08 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $451.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $448.12. The company has a market capitalization of $221.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $479.79. 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 posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.57 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Linde Company 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.