Czech National Bank Boosts Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Czech National Bank increased its holdings in Linde PLC by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter, bringing its total value to $53.98 million with 115,061 shares owned.
• Linde reported quarterly earnings of $4.09 EPS, surpassing expectations and achieving a revenue of $8.50 billion, a 2.3% increase year-over-year.
• The company announced a $1.50 quarterly dividend, with an ex-dividend date of September 4th, representing an annualized yield of 1.3%.

Czech National Bank increased its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 5.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 115,061 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 5,695 shares during the period. Czech National Bank's holdings in Linde were worth $53,984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its position in shares of Linde by 9.1% in the second quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,952 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $916,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Linde by 94.9% in the second quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. now owns 7,632 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,581,000 after buying an additional 3,716 shares in the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders raised its position in shares of Linde by 12.5% in the second quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 4,729 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,219,000 after buying an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the second quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 10,618 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,981,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apella Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 7.2% in the second quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 643 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $302,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. 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 upgraded 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target 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 assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business's 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 sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded up $3.01 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $479.01. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,725,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,663,088. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $473.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $463.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market cap of $224.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. The business's revenue 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, analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde's payout ratio 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.