Ethos Financial Group LLC Invests $345,000 in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Ethos Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde PLC, purchasing 741 shares valued at approximately $345,000.
• A significant number of hedge funds, including Freemont Capital Pte Ltd and Nuveen LLC, have recently increased their holdings in Linde, highlighting strong institutional interest with 82.80% of the stock owned by institutional investors.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, representing an annualized dividend of $6.00 and a yield of 1.2%, with a payout ratio of 42.67%.

Ethos Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 741 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $28,662,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $943,000 after purchasing an additional 1,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 595,775 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $249,433,000 after purchasing an additional 114,271 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Stock Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $0.96 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $481.67. 1,758,624 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,058,384. The company has a fifty day moving average of $468.98 and a 200 day moving average of $460.94. 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 company has a market capitalization of $225.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%.The company's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $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. On average, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

About Linde

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.