Linde PLC $LIN Position Reduced by Aberdeen Group plc

Aberdeen Group plc trimmed its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 582,673 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 15,336 shares during the quarter. Aberdeen Group plc owned approximately 0.12% of Linde worth $272,840,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. North Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Abound Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $41,000. eCIO Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its position in shares of Linde by 445.0% in the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $52,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.00.

Linde Stock Down 0.9%

LIN stock opened at $453.82 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $212.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $474.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $464.49. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $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, sell-side 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 was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.