Temasek Holdings Private Ltd Boosts Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its stake in Linde PLC by 32.8%, purchasing an additional 39,000 shares to own a total of 157,860 shares valued at approximately $73.5 million.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Linde shares, with Royal Bank of Canada setting a target of $576.00 and Citi upgrading their rating to "buy" with a target of $535.00.
• Linde recently declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50, set to be paid on September 18th, which reflects an annualized yield of 1.3% based on the current payout ratio of 42.67%.

Temasek Holdings Private Ltd grew its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 32.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 157,860 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 39,000 shares during the period. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd's holdings in Linde were worth $73,506,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at $2,097,793,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,590,596,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,087 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Linde by 172.4% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,407,637 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,121,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,702 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in 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 valued at $3,511,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. 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 report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.2%

Linde stock traded down $0.74 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $472.70. The stock had a trading volume of 1,551,411 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,043,552. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $472.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $462.55. The stock has a market cap of $221.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.95. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.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 company posted $3.85 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

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.