Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 57,365 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,269,685 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 57,365 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $605,462,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $851,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 47,830.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $446,377,000 after acquiring an additional 934,123 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Linde by 91.6% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $449,648,000 after purchasing an additional 463,096 shares during the period. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $210,480,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup lifted their price target 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. Barclays lifted their price target 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. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $462.63 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $472.12 and its 200 day moving average is $452.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $220.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $385.12 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.63 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.