Manchester Financial Inc. Trims Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Manchester Financial Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 39.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,029 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,337 shares during the quarter. Manchester Financial Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $952,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. North Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $41,000. eCIO Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd increased its holdings in Linde by 445.0% in the 1st quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $52,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related 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 value 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 trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 1.5%

LIN stock opened at $450.89 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $472.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $464.11. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $211.43 billion, a PE ratio of 32.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.85 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.