Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 292,492 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 44,638,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 292,492 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 0.10% of Linde worth $20,943,654,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. eCIO Inc. purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 445.0% in the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth $52,000. Costello Asset Management INC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth $54,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 5,800.0% during the 1st quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Linde from $576.00 to $540.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $475.00 to $455.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $516.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $508.83.

Linde Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $417.85 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $453.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $462.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.72, a PEG 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 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 EPS 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 business had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. Analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 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.