Linde PLC $LIN Shares Newly Purchased by Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI bought a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 54,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,858,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sanders Morris Harris LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $847,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter valued at about $7,498,000. First Financial Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter valued at about $4,034,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter valued at about $1,875,000. Finally, Hikari Power Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth about $20,965,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on LIN. Berenberg Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, October 5th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Linde from $580.00 to $560.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $553.00 to $549.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $547.10.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $508.83 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $548.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company has a market capitalization of $234.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $480.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $498.37.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.49 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.02 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.43% and a return on equity of 20.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.09 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.700-17.900 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 4.450-4.550 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd were given a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.34%.

About Linde

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.