National Pension Service Reduces Position in Linde PLC $LIN

National Pension Service reduced its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 942,892 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 65,676 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.20% of Linde worth $442,386,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. eCIO Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its holdings 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. Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $52,000. Costello Asset Management INC purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $54,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management boosted its stake in Linde by 5,800.0% during the first quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Seaport Res Ptn raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $508.83.

Linde Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of LIN opened at $426.65 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $199.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.91. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $486.38. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $456.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $463.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.94 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.19%.

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.