Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Position Reduced by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 43.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 228,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 174,918 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $100,049,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in shares of Linde by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 36,112 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $15,846,000 after buying an additional 4,366 shares during the last quarter. One Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 71.9% in the 2nd quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 1,095 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $480,000 after buying an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter worth about $58,000. Rathbones Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 534,379 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $234,491,000 after buying an additional 12,295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 54,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $24,023,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $474.91 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $455.31 and its 200-day moving average is $448.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $479.79.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.57 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.