Spire Wealth Management Cuts Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Spire Wealth Management decreased its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 93.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 705 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 10,070 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Linde were worth $301,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $736,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 19.3% in the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 897 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $421,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nicolet Bankshares Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 10.3% in the second quarter. Nicolet Bankshares Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $491,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, EVP Sean Durbin sold 6,520 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.27, for a total value of $3,111,800.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,890,227.77. This trade represents a 44.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.79, for a total transaction of $2,094,802.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,643,729.02. This trade represents a 16.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 20,332 shares of company stock worth $9,749,257 over the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. Erste Group Bank upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Linde from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Mizuho set a $525.00 target price on Linde in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $460.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.20.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $502.60 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $482.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $451.94. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $510.65. The company has a market cap of $232.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.45, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.02. Linde had a return on equity of 19.52% and a net margin of 20.30%.The firm had revenue of $8.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.87%.

Linde Profile

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.