First County Bank CT Grows Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

First County Bank CT grew its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 48.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,406 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 456 shares during the quarter. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Linde were worth $660,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its stake in Linde by 445.0% during the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth about $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $474.41 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $222.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $474.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $463.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.63.

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.