Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Grows Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. grew its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 879 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $117,174,000 after acquiring an additional 3,230 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 82,952 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its stake in Linde by 9.6% during the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,841,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 25.9% in the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,970,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hourglass Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth $935,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on LIN. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup upped their price target on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.00.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde 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 value of $23,815,274.42. Following the sale, the director directly 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 sale 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 0.9%

LIN opened at $446.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $209.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50 day moving average is $470.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $464.34. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $486.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter 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, research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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