Logan Capital Management Inc. Lowers Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Logan Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 6.2%, selling 980 shares during the first quarter, bringing their total holdings to 14,755 shares, valued at approximately $6.87 million.
• In contrast, Truist Financial Corp significantly increased its stake in Linde by 75.0%, acquiring an additional 82,952 shares, leading to a total ownership of 193,563 shares valued at about $90.13 million.
• Linde recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, scheduled for payment on September 18th, which corresponds to an annual yield of 1.3%.

Logan Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 6.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,755 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 980 shares during the quarter. Logan Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $6,871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Abound Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. 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 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two equities 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 currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $519.63.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded down $1.55 during trading on Friday, reaching $482.04. The company had a trading volume of 2,069,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,617,354. The company has a market cap of $226.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $472.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $462.90.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 quarter last year, the company 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 expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.