Linde PLC $LIN Shares Newly Bought by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 122,835 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,146,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Linde by 3.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,558,016,000 after purchasing an additional 719,052 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Linde by 13.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,567,796,000 after purchasing an additional 373,012 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,358,712,000 after purchasing an additional 64,078 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 28.6% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $805,475,000 after purchasing an additional 361,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in Linde by 6.6% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $679,370,000 after buying an additional 85,360 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $511.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $484.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $493.09. The stock has a market cap of $234.84 billion, a PE ratio of 33.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.67. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $387.78 and a 1-year high of $548.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.52 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $9.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.16 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.21 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be given a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 42.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Linde from $542.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 target price on Linde and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Barclays upped their price target on Linde from $577.00 to $591.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Linde from $560.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.05.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.