Welch & Forbes LLC Increases Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Welch & Forbes LLC increased its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 103,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 852 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $48,385,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth $25,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth $52,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on LIN. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $521.60.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $418.68 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $465.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $464.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. 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 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $486.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.94 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict 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 will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Linde Company 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.