Huntington National Bank Increases Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Huntington National Bank increased its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 209,059 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 6,779 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $98,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Nova Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth about $52,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth about $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Linde from $475.00 to $455.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $516.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $514.83.

Linde Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $412.18 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business has a fifty day moving average of $464.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $464.32. The stock has a market cap of $193.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.32, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.94 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 40.19%.

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.