Linde PLC $LIN Stock Holdings Cut by QRG Capital Management Inc.

Key Points

• QRG Capital Management trimmed its stake in Linde by 6.6% in Q4, selling 4,104 shares and leaving it with 58,258 shares valued at about $24.84 million.
• Linde beat Q1 estimates with $4.33 EPS (vs. $4.27 est.) and $8.78 billion revenue (up 8.2% YoY), and set FY2026 guidance of 17.60–17.90 EPS and Q2 guidance of 4.40–4.50 EPS.
• Analysts hold a consensus "Buy" on LIN with a $533 average price target (several firms raised targets, including UBS to $579).

QRG Capital Management Inc. reduced its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 58,258 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 4,104 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $24,841,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $19,167,559,000 after purchasing an additional 354,800 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $9,176,828,000 after purchasing an additional 172,162 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,329,728 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,431,639,000 after purchasing an additional 83,236 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Linde by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,287,566 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,036,594,000 after purchasing an additional 242,733 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,895,026 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,850,137,000 after purchasing an additional 176,650 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Weiss Ratings lowered Linde from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $530.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Linde from $550.00 to $579.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. DZ Bank lowered Linde from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised Linde from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $533.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,357 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $480.79, for a total value of $2,094,802.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at $10,643,729.02. This represents a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Sean Durbin sold 6,520 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.27, for a total value of $3,111,800.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,890,227.77. The trade was a 44.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 20,332 shares of company stock valued at $9,749,257 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $493.55 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $228.71 billion, a PE ratio of 32.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $496.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $456.06. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $387.78 and a fifty-two week high of $521.28.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.60 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 20.44%.The company's revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.95 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 42.50%.

Linde Profile

Linde NASDAQ: LIN is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany's Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde's business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.

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