Nicola Wealth Management LTD. Purchases New Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Nicola Wealth Management has acquired 33,300 shares of Linde PLC, valued at approximately $15.5 million, representing 1.5% of its investment portfolio.
• Several large investors, including Nuveen LLC and GAMMA Investing LLC, have significantly increased their stakes in Linde during the first quarter of the year.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, with a payout ratio of 42.67%, and reported better-than-expected earnings for the last quarter.

Nicola Wealth Management LTD. acquired a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 33,300 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $15,506,000. Linde accounts for approximately 1.5% of Nicola Wealth Management LTD.'s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Linde by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Linde by 18.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,511,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,797,156,000 after purchasing an additional 40,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded down $5.31 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $476.73. 1,130,740 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,037,707. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $472.66 and a 200-day moving average of $462.93. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $223.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.91, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.95. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. The business's revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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 forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. 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 analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $519.63.

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.