First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 6,429 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 607,158 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,429 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Linde were worth $284,866,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Linde by 1.3% in the second quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $117,174,000 after acquiring an additional 3,230 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 186,600 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $87,549,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares during the last quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the second quarter valued at about $465,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 25.9% during the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,970,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth about $345,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $475.00 to $455.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Citigroup dropped their price target on Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 3rd. CICC Research began coverage on Linde in a research note on Wednesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $510.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $509.00.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $409.15 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $436.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $458.73. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $404.27 and a 12 month high of $486.38. The company has a market cap of $191.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.94 earnings per share. The business’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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. 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.