Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,684 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 134 shares during the period. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $25,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd boosted its position 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 buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $52,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $521.60.

Linde Trading Down 2.6%

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $418.68 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $196.32 billion, a PE ratio of 29.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $465.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $464.49. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $486.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.Linde’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.94 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.