Employees Retirement System of Texas Invests $9.13 Million in Linde PLC $LIN

Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 19,449 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,125,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. eCIO Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd grew its stake in shares of Linde by 445.0% during the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Costello Asset Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management raised its position in Linde by 5,800.0% in the 1st quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Citigroup cut their price target on Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Linde from $576.00 to $540.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price 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, six have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $508.83.

Linde Trading Up 0.0%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $407.90 on Thursday. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $406.09 and a 12 month high of $486.38. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $443.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $460.26. 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 market capitalization of $190.47 billion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.91.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.94 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.19%.

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.