Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by Arete Wealth Advisors LLC

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 65 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $512,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 75.0% in the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $90,131,000 after purchasing an additional 82,952 shares in the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,841,000 after buying an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Exane Asset Management purchased a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $295,000. Hourglass Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth $935,000. Finally, Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $345,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $472.70 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.62, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $472.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $462.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $519.63.

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.