Wesbanco Bank Inc. Lowers Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Wesbanco Bank Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 31,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,976 shares during the quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $15,689,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in Linde by 26.8% during the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $644,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,078 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Clio Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $6,379,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,619 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,786,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Finally, Davidson Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.6% during the first quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 1,788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $886,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $560.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $552.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Seaport Research Partners increased their price target on Linde from $525.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $543.27.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $519.89 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $507.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $479.18. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $387.78 and a fifty-two week high of $527.94. The company has a market capitalization of $240.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.60 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.95 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.50%.

Linde Company 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.