Nordea Investment Management AB Reduces Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Nordea Investment Management AB reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 2.8%, now owning approximately 0.32% of the company, worth about $696 million.
• Linde PLC reported better-than-expected earnings of $4.09 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, reflecting an annual yield of 1.4%.
• Equities analysts have raised their price targets on Linde shares, with most assigning a Buy rating, and the average target price currently sits at $520.00.

Nordea Investment Management AB reduced its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,489,031 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 42,497 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB owned approximately 0.32% of Linde worth $696,107,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Abound Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $41,000. eCIO Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 445.0% in the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $52,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $444.24 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 capitalization of $208.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $473.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $464.22. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The business 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last 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. Equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $520.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm's 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 transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.

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