Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $555,000 in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. invested $555,000 in Linde PLC by acquiring 1,183 shares of the company in the second quarter, as reported in their latest 13F filing.
• Linde reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $4.09, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, a 2.3% increase from the previous year.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, representing an annualized dividend yield of 1.3%, with a payout ratio of 42.67%.

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,183 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $555,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 57,589 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $24,110,000 after acquiring an additional 4,514 shares during the last quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division lifted its holdings in Linde by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division now owns 505 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $235,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in Linde by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,789 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $833,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $474.41 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $222.46 billion, a PE ratio of 33.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $474.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $463.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $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, research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid 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 payout ratio is 42.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde 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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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