Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Reduces Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. reduced its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 15.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,651 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 673 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,713,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its holdings 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 valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $54,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $521.60.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $418.68 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company has a fifty day moving average of $465.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $464.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.32 billion, a PE ratio of 29.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $486.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.94 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate 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.