Quent Capital LLC Increases Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,273 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $597,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. North Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $25,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $41,000. eCIO Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 445.0% during the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $52,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LIN. Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Saturday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Finally, 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $466.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $218.85 billion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.93. 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 PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $474.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $464.34.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $8.50 billion during 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 was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $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. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 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.