Ameriflex Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Ameriflex Group Inc. raised its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 41.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,716 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 503 shares during the quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $401,000. Apella Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $267,000. Finally, Lmcg Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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 value of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Linde Stock Performance

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

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $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, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

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.