Divergent Planning LLC Invests $4.73 Million in Linde PLC $LIN

Divergent Planning LLC acquired a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 10,073 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,726,000. Linde comprises approximately 0.9% of Divergent Planning LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. North Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth $41,000. eCIO Inc. bought a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd grew its position in shares of Linde by 445.0% in the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth about $52,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on LIN shares. UBS Group dropped their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $520.00.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $451.56 on Tuesday. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $486.38. The company has a 50 day moving average of $472.31 and a 200-day moving average of $464.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $211.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.12, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate 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.