Davis Investment Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Linde PLC $LIN

Davis Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $570,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $19,167,559,000 after buying an additional 354,800 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,176,828,000 after buying an additional 172,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,820,533,000 after buying an additional 35,945 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Linde by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,127,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,318,325,000 after acquiring an additional 797,866 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Linde by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,784,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,171,959,000 after acquiring an additional 695,771 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LIN. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, May 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Linde from $552.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners raised their target price on shares of Linde from $525.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $543.27.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $515.73 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $507.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $478.03. The stock has a market cap of $238.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.25, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Linde PLC has a one year low of $387.78 and a one year high of $525.87.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.60 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business 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. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Linde Profile

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.