Davidson Investment Advisors Purchases Shares of 19,286 Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Davidson Investment Advisors acquired 19,286 shares of Linde PLC valued at approximately $9 million in the second quarter.
• Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde, decreasing his position by 9.48%, while the stock is currently down 1.7%.
• Linde reported quarterly earnings of $4.09 per share, beating expectations and projecting earnings guidance for FY 2025 between 16.300-16.500 EPS.

Davidson Investment Advisors purchased a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 19,286 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $9,049,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Linde by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after acquiring an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 18.6% in 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 buying an additional 1,182,157 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 40,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,339,761 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,533,318,000 after buying an additional 9,870 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Linde Stock Down 1.7%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $451.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $211.68 billion, a PE ratio of 32.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $473.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $464.37. 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 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. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.Linde's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.85 EPS. 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $520.00.

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.

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