Swiss National Bank Has $644.53 Million Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• The Swiss National Bank trimmed its Linde stake by 5.2% in Q3 to 1,356,901 shares—worth about $644.53 million, or roughly 0.29% of the company.
• VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares for about $4.54 million, cutting his holding by 29.93%; insiders now own roughly 0.70% of Linde.
• Linde topped quarterly estimates (EPS $4.20 vs. $4.18; revenue $8.76B), issued Q1 2026 guidance of 4.20–4.30 and FY 2026 guidance of 17.40–17.90 EPS, and raised its quarterly dividend to $1.60 (annualized $6.40, ~1.3% yield).

Swiss National Bank decreased its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 5.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,356,901 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 74,700 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.29% of Linde worth $644,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Caprock Group LLC bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter valued at about $4,243,000. National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 967,516 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $459,570,000 after purchasing an additional 24,624 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Linde by 12.3% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 205,318 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $97,526,000 after purchasing an additional 22,489 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its position in Linde by 27.2% in the second quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 417,001 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $195,649,000 after purchasing an additional 89,129 shares during the period. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR boosted its stake in Linde by 14.0% during the third quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR now owns 44,981 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $21,366,000 after buying an additional 5,526 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.45, for a total value of $4,542,654.75. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,636,202.10. This trade represents a 29.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Mizuho set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, CICC Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $510.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $508.20.

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $484.74 on Monday. Linde PLC has a one year low of $387.78 and a one year high of $510.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $461.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $449.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.82.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $8.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.64 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.52% and a net margin of 20.30%.The company's revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.97 earnings per share. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. This is a boost from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's payout ratio is currently 41.12%.

Linde Profile

Linde NASDAQ: LIN is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany's Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde's business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.

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