Voya Investment Management LLC Sells 14,767 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Voya Investment Management LLC has reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 2.7% during Q1, now holding approximately $251.94 million worth of shares.
• Linde recently reported $4.09 earnings per share for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations of $4.03, while also increasing its revenue by 2.3% year-over-year.
• The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, with an annualized yield of 1.2%, to be paid on September 18th.

Voya Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 541,074 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 14,767 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC owned about 0.11% of Linde worth $251,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in Linde by 75.0% in the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $90,131,000 after purchasing an additional 82,952 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,841,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the period. Exane Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $295,000. Hourglass Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $935,000. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in Linde by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $10,970,000 after acquiring an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. 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 report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of Linde stock traded down $5.31 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $476.73. The company had a trading volume of 1,130,740 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,623,274. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day moving average of $472.66 and a 200 day moving average of $462.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The business 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $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. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given 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 is 42.67%.

Linde Company 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.