Great Lakes Advisors LLC Sells 4,811 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 15.6%, owning 26,117 shares worth $12.14 million after selling 4,811 shares.
• Linde reported quarterly earnings of $4.09 per share, exceeding expectations, with revenue of $8.50 billion, a year-over-year increase of 2.3%.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 1.3% and a payout ratio of 42.67%.

Great Lakes Advisors LLC lowered its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 15.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,117 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 4,811 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $12,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Linde by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in Linde by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $28,662,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its position in Linde by 80.4% during the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $943,000 after purchasing an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 24,547 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,277,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $519.63.

Linde Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ LIN traded down $1.55 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $482.04. 2,069,711 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,617,354. The stock has a market cap of $226.03 billion, a PE ratio of 34.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $472.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $462.90. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. 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 released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.85 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. 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. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is 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.