WCM Investment Management LLC Purchases 61,829 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,401,590 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,829 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for about 3.6% of WCM Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. WCM Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,577,624,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Linde by 1.3% in the second quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $117,174,000 after buying an additional 3,230 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in Linde by 75.0% in the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $90,131,000 after buying an additional 82,952 shares in the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC raised its stake in Linde by 9.6% in the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,841,000 after buying an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its stake in Linde by 25.9% in the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,970,000 after buying an additional 4,839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exane Asset Management acquired a new stake in Linde in the first quarter valued at $295,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $520.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $451.42 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $473.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $464.37. The firm has a market cap of $211.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.85 earnings per share. 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 year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Linde Company Profile

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.