Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $77.24 Million Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 0.8%, selling 1,263 shares, while still holding 165,869 shares valued at approximately $77.2 million.
• Linde reported earnings of $4.09 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $4.03, with revenues reaching $8.50 billion.
• A quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share will be paid soon, resulting in an annualized yield of 1.3% based on a payout ratio of 42.67%.

Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 165,869 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,263 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $77,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Linde by 5.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,470,284,000 after buying an additional 453,108 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,511,751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,157 shares in the last quarter. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,097,793,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,797,156,000 after purchasing an additional 40,931 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $1.59 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $471.87. The company had a trading volume of 635,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,042,752. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $221.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company's 50-day moving average is $472.16 and its 200-day moving average is $462.22.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.85 EPS. Linde's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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 analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two research 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $519.63.

About Linde

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.