Linde PLC $LIN Stock Holdings Trimmed by Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.

Key Points

• Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter, holding a total value of $793,000 in the company.
• Linde received positive ratings from various analysts, with Citigroup upgrading its rating to "buy" and increasing the price target from $500 to $535.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50, which translates to an annual yield of 1.3%, set to be paid on September 18th.

Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. lessened its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,691 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 823 shares during the period. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $793,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Linde by 18.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 1.1% during the 1st 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 during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $3.01 during trading on Friday, reaching $479.01. 3,725,607 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,663,088. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $473.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $463.38. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. 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 firm has a market cap of $224.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.95.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced 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. 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 analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.85 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group raised 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note 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 assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

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.