Ethic Inc. Buys 2,910 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. increased its stake in Linde PLC by 30.2%, owning 12,544 shares valued at approximately $5.86 million as reported in their recent SEC filing.
• Linde reported earnings of $4.09 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations and achieving a revenue of $8.50 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, with an annualized yield of 1.2%, set to be paid on September 18th.

Ethic Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 30.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,544 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 2,910 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $5,859,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in shares of Linde by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $28,662,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 80.4% in the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $943,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Sarl increased its stake in shares of Linde by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 72,911 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $30,526,000 after buying an additional 9,360 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.6%

Linde stock traded up $2.9220 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $482.8420. The stock had a trading volume of 695,113 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,065,940. 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 company has a market capitalization of $226.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.35, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $468.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $460.61. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 expect 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 dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. 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 target price on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price 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. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two investment 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.