Cerity Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 182,829 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 19,952 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $85,779,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,638,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,943,654,000 after purchasing an additional 292,492 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Linde by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after buying an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Linde by 18.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Linde in the second quarter valued at about $3,098,772,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth about $2,097,793,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $399.57 on Monday. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $398.93 and a 52 week high of $486.38. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $434.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $457.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market cap of $186.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.85.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 21.17%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.94 earnings per share. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, December 1st. Citigroup decreased 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. CICC Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $510.00 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Linde from $475.00 to $455.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.00.

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.