Patten Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Patten Group Inc. decreased its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 44 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises approximately 0.8% of Patten Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Patten Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,602,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 25.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,488 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 3.2% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 21,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,920,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 39.2% in the first quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 1,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $583,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. Citigroup increased their price objective on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $520.00.

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $450.08 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $471.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $464.05. 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 cap of $211.05 billion, a PE ratio of 32.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $486.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. 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 predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

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.