Guardian Partners Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Guardian Partners Inc. reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 35.9%, now holding 2,941 shares worth approximately $1.32 million.
• Linde reported a quarterly EPS of $4.09, exceeding estimates, with revenue of $8.50 billion, marking a 2.3% year-over-year increase.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50, with an annual yield of 1.3%, set to be paid on September 18th.

Guardian Partners Inc. trimmed its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 35.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,941 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,650 shares during the quarter. Guardian Partners Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $1,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. UBS Group upped their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on 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 started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Activity 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 stock was 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 directly 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Linde stock traded down $1.55 on Friday, hitting $482.04. The company had a trading volume of 2,069,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,617,354. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $472.66 and a 200-day moving average of $462.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business 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. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend 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.