Hendley & Co. Inc. Buys Shares of 9,646 Linde PLC $LIN

Hendley & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 9,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,526,000. Linde comprises approximately 1.6% of Hendley & Co. Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth about $41,000. eCIO Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth about $45,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lifted its position in shares of Linde by 445.0% in the first quarter. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd now owns 109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $52,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.4%

Linde stock opened at $470.37 on Wednesday. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $220.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.45, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $474.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $464.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. UBS Group lowered their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Citigroup increased their price target on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.00.

Linde 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.