Wesbanco Bank Inc. Acquires 3,439 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Wesbanco Bank Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 13.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,281 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,439 shares during the quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $13,738,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,662,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $943,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 47,377 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,835,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $482.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.03 billion, a PE ratio of 34.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.95. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $472.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $462.91. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period 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. 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 disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, 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 for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Buy” and an average 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.