Linde PLC $LIN Shares Sold by Ballast Advisors LLC

Ballast Advisors LLC lessened its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 13.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 520 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 80 shares during the quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $244,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Heirloom Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Heirloom Wealth Management now owns 29,345 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $13,768,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,764 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,235,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $666,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 17.7% in the 2nd quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,721 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after acquiring an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leavell Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,767 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,237,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $520.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction 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 approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $446.00 on Friday. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $470.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $464.69. The company has a market cap of $209.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.85 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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