Linde PLC $LIN Stake Boosted by USA Financial Formulas

USA Financial Formulas increased its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 18.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas’ holdings in Linde were worth $268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Trilogy Capital Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Linde by 1.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,230 shares in the last quarter. Impact Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Linde by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Impact Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,348 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,509,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,853 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $869,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Linde by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $721,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other 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 in the company, 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 can be accessed through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $466.81 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $218.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $474.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $464.21.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during 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 firm’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $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 issued 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 was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $519.63.

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.