Jones Financial Companies Lllp Trims Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Jones Financial Companies Lllp significantly reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 62.9%, selling 58,801 shares during the 1st quarter, leaving them with 34,640 shares valued at $16.13 million.
• Analyst ratings for Linde have improved, with UBS and Citigroup raising their target prices, resulting in a current consensus rating of "Buy" and a target price of approximately $519.63.
• Linde's recent quarterly earnings report showed an EPS of $4.09, beating expectations and indicating a year-over-year revenue growth of 2.3% to $8.50 billion.

Jones Financial Companies Lllp decreased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 62.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 34,640 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 58,801 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp's holdings in Linde were worth $16,130,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in Linde by 32.8% during the first quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 157,860 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $73,506,000 after purchasing an additional 39,000 shares during the last quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at $753,000. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 8.1% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 335 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $156,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Parkwood LLC lifted its position in Linde by 79.2% during the first quarter. Parkwood LLC now owns 41,973 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $19,544,000 after purchasing an additional 18,549 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PharVision Advisers LLC bought a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at $218,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Linde Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Linde stock traded down $1.55 during trading on Friday, hitting $482.04. The stock had a trading volume of 2,069,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,617,354. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $472.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $462.91. The stock has a market cap of $226.03 billion, a PE ratio of 34.28, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.95. 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 PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm's revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm 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, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.