Davidson Investment Advisors Makes New Investment in Linde PLC $LIN

Davidson Investment Advisors purchased a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 19,286 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,049,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the second quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $117,174,000 after acquiring an additional 3,230 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Linde by 75.0% in the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $90,131,000 after acquiring an additional 82,952 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,841,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its position in shares of Linde by 25.9% in the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,970,000 after acquiring an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exane Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at about $295,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $451.42 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $211.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.11, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $473.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $464.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business’s revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $520.00.

About Linde

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.