Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt Purchases 45,200 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt increased its holdings in Linde PLC by 9.0%, owning 546,500 shares valued at approximately $256 million.
• Research firms have differing opinions on Linde, with JPMorgan Chase raising its price target to $475 and Citigroup boosting it to $535, reflecting a consensus "Buy" rating.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, providing a 1.3% dividend yield, while also reporting an EPS of $4.09 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates.

Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt boosted its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 9.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 546,500 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 45,200 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for 1.2% of Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt's portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt owned 0.12% of Linde worth $256,276,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 75.0% during the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $90,131,000 after buying an additional 82,952 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,841,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its position in Linde by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $10,970,000 after acquiring an additional 4,839 shares during the period. Exane Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $295,000. Finally, Hourglass Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $935,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded up $3.01 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $479.01. The company had a trading volume of 3,725,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,663,088. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $473.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $463.35. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $224.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.95.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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. Equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup upgraded 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 report on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Insider Transactions at Linde

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 value 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. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.