Credit Agricole S A Lowers Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

Error: Response status code does not indicate success: 429 (Too Many Requests).

Credit Agricole S A lowered its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 9.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 431,562 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 47,629 shares during the period. Linde makes up approximately 0.6% of Credit Agricole S A's portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Credit Agricole S A owned about 0.09% of Linde worth $200,953,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. 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 report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Two equities 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, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $519.63.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.96 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $481.67. 1,782,492 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,062,129. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $468.98 and a 200 day moving average of $460.94. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $225.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.92.

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 the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company 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 business posted $3.85 earnings per share. The firm'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, equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the 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 $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Company 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.