Linde PLC $LIN Stock Holdings Raised by Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 879 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 63 shares during the quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 25.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,488 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $281,000. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 3.5% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,700,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $520.00.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $446.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $470.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $464.34. The company has a market capitalization of $209.13 billion, a PE ratio of 31.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $486.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.85 earnings per share. 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, analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde 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 sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Company 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.