Sterling Capital Management LLC Sells 16,893 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Sterling Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 246,396 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 16,893 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises about 1.6% of Sterling Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $115,604,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in 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 grew its holdings 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 worth $3,511,751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $233,405,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Linde by 5.0% in 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 institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Linde from $475.00 to $455.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. UBS Group cut their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $576.00 to $540.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $508.83.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $415.32 on Friday. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $486.38. The company has a market capitalization of $193.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.54, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $460.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $463.42. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 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 return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.94 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.19%.

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.