First Merchants Corp Sells 1,071 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

First Merchants Corp lessened its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,269 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,071 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp's holdings in Linde were worth $9,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Abound Financial LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. eCIO Inc. bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its stake in Linde by 445.0% in the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on LIN shares. 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. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $520.00.

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 shares were 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 in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $467.83 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $219.37 billion, a PE ratio of 33.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $474.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $464.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 earnings per share. Linde'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. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

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.

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