Hilltop National Bank Buys New Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $583,000.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Saturday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of LIN opened at $466.73 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $218.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.20, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $474.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $464.31.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. 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. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 is presently 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 dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by 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.