Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 74,435 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,206 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $34,923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth about $2,097,793,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 172.4% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,407,637 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,121,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,702 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Linde by 18.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $233,405,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Linde by 5.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after buying an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $519.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $466.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $474.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $464.31. The firm has a market cap of $218.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.20, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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