Meeder Asset Management Inc. Reduces Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. cut its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 66.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 533 shares during the quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $116,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in Linde by 46.9% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after buying an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $468.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $223.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $454.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $448.68. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $479.79.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued 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 1.19%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly 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 available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

About Linde

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.