Strs Ohio Buys New Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Strs Ohio has acquired a new stake in Linde PLC, purchasing 151,505 shares valued at approximately $70.5 million during the first quarter.
• Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock, resulting in a 9.48% decrease in their ownership, with total shares remaining valued at over $227 million.
• Linde recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, with an annualized yield of 1.3%, highlighting its commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 151,505 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $70,547,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Linde by 75.0% during the 1st quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $90,131,000 after buying an additional 82,952 shares in the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,841,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Exane Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $295,000. Hourglass Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $935,000. Finally, Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $345,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was 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 $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $472.70 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $221.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.62, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.95. 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 PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $472.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $462.62.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.85 earnings per share. 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, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LIN. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group upped their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price 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.

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