MAI Capital Management Boosts Position in Linde PLC $LIN

MAI Capital Management grew its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 29.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 37,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 8,524 shares during the period. MAI Capital Management’s holdings in Linde were worth $17,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Linde by 5.0% during 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 during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Linde by 1.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,797,156,000 after purchasing an additional 40,931 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Trading Down 0.8%

Linde stock opened at $478.29 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $471.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $461.93. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $224.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company 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.