California Public Employees Retirement System Grows Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 958,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,299 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Linde were worth $455,086,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,098,772,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth about $453,274,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Linde by 82.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,683,248 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $799,543,000 after buying an additional 760,954 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its stake in shares of Linde by 18.5% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 2,972,515 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,394,198,000 after buying an additional 463,977 shares during the period. Finally, ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new stake in Linde in the second quarter valued at approximately $187,359,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.7%

Linde stock opened at $493.92 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $228.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.85, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.88. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $387.78 and a fifty-two week high of $510.65. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $467.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $450.27.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.02. Linde had a return on equity of 19.52% and a net margin of 20.30%.The firm had revenue of $8.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.97 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, EVP Sean Durbin sold 6,520 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.27, for a total transaction of $3,111,800.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,890,227.77. This trade represents a 44.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,357 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.79, for a total transaction of $2,094,802.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,643,729.02. This represents a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 20,332 shares of company stock valued at $9,749,257. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $530.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Mizuho set a $525.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $545.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Linde from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $515.20.

Linde Profile

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.