Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in Linde PLC by 0.5%, acquiring an additional 1,170 shares, bringing its total holdings to 222,273 shares valued at approximately $103.5 million.
• Linde reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $4.09, exceeding analysts' expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 to be paid on September 18th.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Linde, with UBS increasing its target from $485 to $504 and Citigroup upgrading its rating from "neutral" to "buy" while raising the target price from $500 to $535.

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 0.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 222,273 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,170 shares during the period. Linde accounts for 0.7% of Clark Capital Management Group Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $103,499,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its stake in Linde by 2.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 80.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Linde by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 43,409 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $18,174,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $2.87 during trading on Friday, hitting $469.52. 1,066,218 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,493,888. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $472.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $462.36. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $220.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.95.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.85 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter 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. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $519.63.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.