Panagora Asset Management Inc. Raises Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Linde PLC by 37.5%, acquiring an additional 5,264 shares in the first quarter, bringing their total to 19,298 shares valued at approximately $8.99 million.
• Linde has seen significant interest from institutional investors, with 82.80% of the stock now owned by them, including recent purchases from firms like Brighton Jones LLC and Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50, resulting in an annualized yield of 1.3%, and has updated its earnings guidance with a forecast of $4.100-4.20 EPS for Q3 2025.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 37.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,298 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 5,264 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $8,986,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted 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 valued at $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in 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. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Finally, 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 acquiring an additional 40,931 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $0.61 on Thursday, reaching $472.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,480,849 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,047,916. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $472.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $462.22. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $221.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.85 earnings per share. Linde's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be 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 is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on 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 directly 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde 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.