Merit Financial Group LLC Boosts Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 16.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,944 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 249,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $117,174,000 after acquiring an additional 3,230 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 75.0% in the 1st quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $90,131,000 after acquiring an additional 82,952 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,841,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 25.9% in the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 23,558 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,970,000 after acquiring an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hourglass Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $935,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $466.73 on Monday. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $474.57 and its 200 day moving average is $464.39. 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 company has a market cap of $218.85 billion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 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, 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 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. 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 42.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.63.

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.