Voya Investment Management LLC Has $251.94 Million Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Voya Investment Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 541,074 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 14,767 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC owned about 0.11% of Linde worth $251,939,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $41,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, eCIO Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $483.59 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $226.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.39, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $472.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $462.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on LIN. UBS Group raised their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, 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.