Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by First National Trust Co

First National Trust Co lessened its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 34,966 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 789 shares during the period. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Linde were worth $16,405,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 453,108 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Linde by 18.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at about $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Linde by 1.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,797,156,000 after buying an additional 40,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 1.9% during the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,401,590 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,577,624,000 after buying an additional 61,829 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup increased their target price on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Two 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $520.00.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $444.82 on Tuesday. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $486.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $208.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $469.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $464.82.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. The company’s revenue 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. Equities research analysts predict 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 will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.