Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd.

Key Points

• Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 74.2%, selling 2,939 shares during the first quarter, resulting in ownership of 1,022 shares worth approximately $468,000.
• Linde recently announced a dividend of $1.50 per share to be paid on September 18th, which represents an annualized yield of 1.3%.
• The company's latest earnings report revealed an EPS of $4.09, exceeding expectations, with a revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, marking a 2.3% year-over-year increase.

Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 74.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,022 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 2,939 shares during the period. Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd.'s holdings in Linde were worth $468,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted 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 worth $4,470,284,000 after buying an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. Institutional investors 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 stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Price Performance

LIN traded up $2.04 on Thursday, reaching $472.32. 689,735 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,042,884. The stock has a market cap of $221.47 billion, a PE ratio of 33.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $472.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $462.22. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. Linde's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

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.