First Manhattan CO. LLC. Has $303.54 Million Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• First Manhattan CO. LLC increased its stake in Linde PLC by 7.2%, now holding approximately $303.54 million worth of the stock, making it the 22nd largest holding in their portfolio.
• Linde's quarterly earnings report revealed an EPS of $4.09, surpassing analysts' expectations, with revenue rising 2.3% compared to the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50, translating to an annualized yield of 1.3% and a payout ratio of 42.67%.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. increased its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 7.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 651,875 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 44,019 shares during the period. Linde makes up 0.9% of First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned approximately 0.14% of Linde worth $303,539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $158,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,519 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,173,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the period. Flputnam Investment Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 21,904 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,199,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,907 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,216,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, MAI Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 29.3% in the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 37,598 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $17,507,000 after purchasing an additional 8,524 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented 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. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target 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. Two equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.61 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $472.39. The company had a trading volume of 1,480,849 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,047,916. The company has a market capitalization of $221.51 billion, a PE ratio of 33.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $472.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $462.22. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's payout ratio is currently 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.