Dana Investment Advisors Inc. Cuts Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 93.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,874 shares during the quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $864,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,243,000. National Pension Service grew its position in Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 967,516 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $459,570,000 after buying an additional 24,624 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 12.3% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 205,318 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $97,526,000 after buying an additional 22,489 shares in the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its position in shares of Linde by 27.2% during the 2nd quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 417,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $195,649,000 after acquiring an additional 89,129 shares during the period. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR now owns 44,981 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,366,000 after acquiring an additional 5,526 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.45, for a total transaction of $4,542,654.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,636,202.10. This represents a 29.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. Mizuho set a $525.00 price objective on Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Linde from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $508.20.

Linde Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of LIN opened at $498.51 on Friday. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $387.78 and a fifty-two week high of $510.65. The company has a market capitalization of $232.78 billion, a PE ratio of 34.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $452.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $449.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.02. Linde had a return on equity of 19.52% and a net margin of 20.30%.The business had revenue of $8.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be given a $1.60 dividend. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 41.12%.

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.