Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Acquires 2,948 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 30,281 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,948 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $14,207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 25.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,488 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 3.2% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 21,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,920,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the period. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 39.2% during the first quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 1,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $583,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $449.92 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $471.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $463.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $210.97 billion, a PE ratio of 32.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $486.38.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. 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 currently 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target 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 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.00.

About Linde

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.