Jones Financial Companies Lllp Raises Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Linde PLC by 21.9% in Q1, holding 113,937 shares valued at approximately $52.5 million.
• Major hedge funds, including Price T Rowe Associates and Wellington Management, also raised their positions in Linde, with overall institutional ownership at 82.8%.
• Analysts recommend a Buy rating for Linde stock, with a consensus target price of $519.63, following a recent earnings report that exceeded expectations.

Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 21.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 113,937 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 20,496 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp's holdings in Linde were worth $52,500,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Linde by 5.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Linde by 18.6% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 40,931 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in 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 worth $1,590,596,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,087 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on LIN shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $482.04 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $472.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $462.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $226.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 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. Equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. Linde's payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Company 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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