774 Shares in Linde PLC $LIN Acquired by SCS Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• SCS Capital Management LLC has made a new investment of approximately $360,000 by acquiring 774 shares of Linde PLC during the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors increased their stakes in Linde, with Truist Financial Corp growing its holdings by 75% during the same period.
• Linde PLC reported quarterly earnings of $4.09 EPS, surpassing analysts' expectations, and has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share to be paid on September 18th.

SCS Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 774 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $360,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Linde by 5.0% in the first 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 during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Linde by 18.6% in the first 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 during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.1% in the first 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 during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 58,312.0% in the first 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $519.63.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading 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 2,037,707. The company's 50 day moving average price is $472.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $462.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $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. Analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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 yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

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.