Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG

Key Points

• Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG has reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 0.8%, now holding 70,831 shares valued at approximately $33.2 million.
• Linde recently reported quarterly earnings of $4.09 per share, exceeding expectations and indicating a 2.3% increase in year-over-year revenue.
• The firm declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, resulting in an annualized yield of 1.3% and a payout ratio of 42.67%.

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG trimmed its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 0.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,831 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 585 shares during the quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG's holdings in Linde were worth $33,232,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LIN. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $2,097,793,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 172.4% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,407,637 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,121,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,702 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 18.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $233,405,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $473.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $474.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $463.66. The company has a market capitalization of $222.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.95. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. Linde'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, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given 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 was Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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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