Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. Trims Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd. decreased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 53.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 946 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,088 shares during the quarter. Fullerton Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Linde were worth $403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 lifted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,176,828,000 after buying an additional 172,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.3% during 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 buying an additional 35,945 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Linde by 8.6% during 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 buying an additional 797,866 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,246,750,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

LIN stock opened at $518.17 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market capitalization of $239.57 billion, a PE ratio of 34.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.72. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $525.87. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $505.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $473.53.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.60 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 20.44%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.95 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Seaport Research Partners upped their price target on Linde from $525.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $560.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $541.91.

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.