Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 120,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,384 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $56,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,638,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,943,654,000 after purchasing an additional 292,492 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Linde by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,470,284,000 after buying an additional 453,108 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Linde by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde in the second quarter valued at about $3,098,772,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Linde by 4.8% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,044,833 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,897,755,000 after acquiring an additional 185,294 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LIN. 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 report on Monday, November 3rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. UBS Group reduced their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, CICC Research began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $510.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.00.

Linde Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of LIN stock opened at $389.38 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $432.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $457.44. The firm has a market cap of $181.82 billion, a PE ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.85. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $387.78 and a 1-year high of $486.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced 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. Linde had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 21.17%.The company had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.94 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.