Ancora Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde PLC by 2.2%, now holding 45,142 shares valued at approximately $21 million.
• Analysts have set Linde's price target between $475.00 and $576.00, with a consensus rating of "Buy."
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, with a total annualized dividend of $6.00, resulting in a yield of 1.3%.

Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,142 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 959 shares during the quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $21,020,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Aprio Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $228,000. 1 North Wealth Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $108,000. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec lifted its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 27,304 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $12,714,000 after buying an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 16.9% during the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,024 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,271,000 after buying an additional 1,014 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGL Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $202,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective 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 increased their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group increased 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $2.87 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $469.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,066,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,493,888. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $472.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $462.36. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. 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 stock has a market cap of $220.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.95.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.67%.

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.