Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Buys New Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Crossmark Global Holdings purchased 27,549 Linde shares worth approximately $13.1 million in the third quarter, while institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 82.8% of the company.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on Linde, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $547.10; recent targets range as high as $580.
• Linde exceeded quarterly expectations with $4.50 in earnings per share and $9.29 billion in revenue, up 9.3% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $1.60 per share, representing a 1.3% annualized yield.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 27,549 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $13,076,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanders Morris Harris LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at $847,000. First Financial Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter valued at about $4,034,000. Hikari Power Ltd bought a new position in Linde during the second quarter valued at about $20,965,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter valued at about $1,875,000. Finally, Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 271.8% during the first quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 8,462 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,195,000 after buying an additional 6,186 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on LIN. Evercore lifted their target price on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $553.00 to $549.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price objective on shares of Linde and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, October 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $547.10.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $510.36 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $235.27 billion, a PE ratio of 32.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $480.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $498.29.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.49 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.02 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 20.09% and a net margin of 20.43%. Linde's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.09 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.700-17.900 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 4.450-4.550 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.34%.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc NASDAQ: LIN is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde's products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.

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