Park National Corp OH Sells 3,364 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Park National Corp OH has reduced its holdings in Linde PLC by 10.3%, now owning 29,180 shares valued at approximately $13.69 million after selling 3,364 shares in the second quarter.
• Several institutional investors have increased their stakes in Linde, with 82.80% of the company's stock currently owned by such investors.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 1.2%, to be paid on September 18th to stockholders of record by September 4th.

Park National Corp OH trimmed its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 10.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,180 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 3,364 shares during the period. Park National Corp OH's holdings in Linde were worth $13,691,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.0% during 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 buying an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 18.6% during 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 buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,797,156,000 after purchasing an additional 40,931 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of 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 report on Monday, June 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Down 1.1%

NASDAQ LIN traded down $5.31 on Monday, hitting $476.73. 1,130,740 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,623,274. The company has a market cap of $223.54 billion, a PE ratio of 33.91, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $472.80 and a 200-day moving average of $462.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.85 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue 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. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Linde

In other 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 value of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.