Sterling Capital Management LLC Purchases 85,757 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Sterling Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 85,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,704,000. Linde makes up 0.8% of Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID grew its position in Linde by 96.6% in the 1st quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 57 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 74.2% during the second quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 54 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 1,450.0% during the first quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 62 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polaris Financial Partners purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $542.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $577.00 price target for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have 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 $547.10.

Linde Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of LIN stock traded down $1.53 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $508.83. 1,665,640 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,058,353. The business’s fifty day moving average is $480.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $498.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $234.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.71. 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.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is 41.34%.

Linde Profile

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.