Carderock Capital Management Inc. Makes New $2.41 Million Investment in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Carderock Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Linde PLC, purchasing 5,138 shares valued at approximately $2.4 million during the second quarter.
• Linde reported earnings of $4.09 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations, with total revenues of $8.50 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $6.00 and a yield of 1.3%.

Carderock Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 5,138 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $2,411,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marshall Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $929,000. Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% in the second quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 1,883 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $883,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $987,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the second quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 57,233 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $27,219,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Community Trust & Investment Co. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the second quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 56,418 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $26,470,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded up $0.63 on Tuesday, reaching $478.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 384,259 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,027,789. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $224.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $473.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $463.39. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.85 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.