California Public Employees Retirement System Reduces Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 816,545 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 122,934 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Linde were worth $404,810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $325,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 19.8% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $736,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its stake in Linde by 19.3% in the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 897 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $421,000 after buying an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC raised its stake in Linde by 3.2% in the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 5,625 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,639,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $559.00 target price on Linde in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Linde from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners upped their price target on Linde from $525.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $548.67.

Linde Trading Down 1.4%

Linde stock opened at $513.22 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The company has a market capitalization of $237.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $515.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $491.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.60 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 20.44%.The company’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.95 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.50%.

About Linde

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.