Night Owl Capital Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Night Owl Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,474 shares during the quarter. Linde makes up about 2.9% of Night Owl Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Night Owl Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $22,907,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LIN. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. 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 target for the company. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $519.63.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $472.39 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $472.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $462.33. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $221.51 billion, a PE ratio of 33.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Linde

In related 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 directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.