Welch & Forbes LLC Acquires 852 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Welch & Forbes LLC grew its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 103,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 852 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $48,385,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,097,793,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,523,702 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Linde by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,511,751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,157 shares in the last quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $233,405,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Linde by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,470,284,000 after acquiring an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $521.60.

Linde Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of Linde stock opened at $418.68 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $486.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.78, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $465.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $464.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.94 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. Analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’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 sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.