Amundi Raises Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Amundi increased its stake in Linde PLC by 1.7% in Q1, now owning 2,846,051 shares valued at approximately $1.33 billion.
• Several institutional investors recently established new stakes in Linde, contributing to institutional ownership reaching 82.80% of the company's stock.
• Linde reported Q2 EPS of $4.09, exceeding estimates, with revenue of $8.50 billion, marking a 2.3% year-over-year growth.

Amundi lifted its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,846,051 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 47,024 shares during the quarter. Amundi owned approximately 0.60% of Linde worth $1,329,732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased 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. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in Linde by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $28,662,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 80.4% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $943,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Linde by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 113,297 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $47,434,000 after acquiring an additional 14,051 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Linde Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of LIN stock traded down $2.87 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $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 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.95. The firm's 50-day moving average is $472.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $462.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. The business'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. On average, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.