Sit Investment Associates Inc. Buys 7,025 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Sit Investment Associates Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 18.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 45,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 7,025 shares during the quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $19,421,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $19,167,559,000 after purchasing an additional 354,800 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,176,828,000 after buying an additional 172,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,820,533,000 after buying an additional 35,945 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Linde by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,127,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,318,325,000 after buying an additional 797,866 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Linde by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,784,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,171,959,000 after buying an additional 695,771 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $560.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Linde from $552.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $541.91.

Linde Stock Down 0.7%

LIN opened at $512.15 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $236.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.01, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $506.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $475.01. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $525.87.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.60 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.95 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.50%.

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.