Railway Pension Investments Ltd Has $55.72 Million Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Railway Pension Investments Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 41.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 120,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 85,900 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s holdings in Linde were worth $55,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC grew its position in Linde by 310.0% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. HSBC cut their price target on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. 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 note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group dropped 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $477.25.

Linde Trading Up 0.1 %

LIN stock traded up $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $454.00. The company had a trading volume of 2,714,589 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,497,816. The stock has a market cap of $218.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $439.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $439.50.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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 given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.