QRG Capital Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

QRG Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 74,435 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,206 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $34,923,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wallington Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC now owns 72,985 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,243,000 after purchasing an additional 995 shares during the last quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Linde by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,154 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,617,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its position in Linde by 13.0% during the second quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 53,635 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,165,000 after buying an additional 6,187 shares during the period. Barrett & Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the second quarter valued at approximately $99,000. Finally, Mattern Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the second quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 23,624 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,084,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Two 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $466.73 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $474.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $464.31. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $218.85 billion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion for 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 revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm 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. Equities research 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 was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were 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 owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.