Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 3,184 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd lessened its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 44,375 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,184 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Linde were worth $21,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Meadowbrook Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Meadowbrook Advisors Group LLC now owns 511 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Blalock Williams LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Blalock Williams LLC now owns 510 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 1,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 0.5% during the first quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 4,159 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,062,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Binnacle Investments Inc grew its holdings in Linde by 10.2% during the second quarter. Binnacle Investments Inc now owns 237 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $559.00 price objective on Linde in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, May 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $548.67.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $512.28 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $516.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $493.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.72.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 20.44%.The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th were issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.50%.

Linde Profile

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.