Bessemer Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2,320.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 464,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 444,838 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of Linde worth $230,038,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,167,559,000 after buying an additional 354,800 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Linde by 0.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 172,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,820,533,000 after acquiring an additional 35,945 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Linde by 8.6% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Linde by 7.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on LIN shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $552.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $525.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, July 10th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $560.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $541.75.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $520.74 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $515.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $490.93. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.58, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.72.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.95 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.