Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Reduces Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 2.5%, selling 11,000 shares and now owning approximately 0.09% of the company, valued at $202,197,000.
• Recent analyst reports have revised Linde's price targets upward, with UBS Group increasing its target from $485.00 to $504.00 and Citigroup raising theirs from $500.00 to $535.00, reflecting a generally positive sentiment.
• Linde has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50, with an annualized dividend yield of 1.3%, scheduled for payment on September 18th to stockholders of record on September 4th.

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. trimmed its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 434,235 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 11,000 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned approximately 0.09% of Linde worth $202,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. North Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Abound Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth about $41,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the 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 transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price 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 started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Down 0.6%

LIN stock traded down $2.87 during trading on Friday, reaching $469.52. The stock had a trading volume of 1,066,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,493,888. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. 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 company's 50 day moving average is $472.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $462.36. The company has a market capitalization of $220.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.95.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. The company's revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

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.