Empowered Funds LLC Has $8.87 Million Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Linde PLC by 87.4%, reaching a worth of $8.87 million after acquiring additional shares in the first quarter.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Linde, with UBS Group setting a new target of $504.00 and Citigroup upgrading its rating to buy with a target of $535.00.
• Linde declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, which translates to an annualized payout of $6.00 and a dividend yield of 1.3%.

Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 87.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,044 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 8,880 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $8,868,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.0% in the first 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 buying an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 18.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 1.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,797,156,000 after purchasing an additional 40,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. The trade was 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 at this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock 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 research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded down $1.55 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $482.04. The stock had a trading volume of 2,069,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,617,354. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.03 billion, a PE ratio of 34.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $472.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $462.91. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company 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 predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

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.