Eastern Bank Cuts Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Eastern Bank reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 1.0%, selling 779 shares to own a total of 78,572 shares valued at approximately $36.86 million.
• Linde's stock received mixed analyst ratings, with JPMorgan raising their price target to $475.00 while UBS lowered it to $507.00, maintaining a "neutral" rating.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, which represents an annualized dividend of $6.00 and a yield of 1.3%.

Eastern Bank decreased its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 78,572 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 779 shares during the period. Eastern Bank's holdings in Linde were worth $36,864,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth about $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd grew its position in Linde by 445.0% in the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth about $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $520.00.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $453.82 on Friday. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $474.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $464.49. The company has a market cap of $212.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.28, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.85 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.

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