Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 914 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Advisors Asset Management Inc. has reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 3.8%, selling 914 shares and now holding 23,199 shares valued at approximately $10.8 million.
• Linde reported $4.09 earnings per share for the last quarter, beating estimates, and had a revenue of $8.50 billion, which is a 2.3% increase year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $6.00 and a dividend yield of 1.3%.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,199 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 914 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $10,802,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Strategy Asset Managers LLC raised its position in Linde by 2.8% in the first quarter. Strategy Asset Managers LLC now owns 834 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $388,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Linde by 2.5% in the first quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 999 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $450,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in Linde by 0.8% in the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,207 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 3.0% during the first quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 816 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Enterprise Financial Services Corp raised its position in shares of Linde by 3.9% during the first quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 647 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $301,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Down 0.6%

LIN stock traded down $2.87 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $469.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,066,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,493,888. The company has a market cap of $220.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.95. The business's 50 day moving average price is $472.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $462.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 business 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $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. On average, equities research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde's payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

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.