Korea Investment CORP Purchases 11,896 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Korea Investment CORP grew its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 356,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 11,896 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Linde were worth $152,159,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 0.8% during the 4th 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 shares of Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd 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 shares of Linde by 0.3% during the 4th 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 shares of Linde by 8.6% during the 4th 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 bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,246,750,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Linde from $580.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $541.91.

Linde Stock Up 1.6%

Linde stock opened at $523.57 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $387.78 and a 1-year high of $525.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.72. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $504.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $471.51.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.44% and a return on equity of 19.80%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.95 EPS. Linde’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Linde Company 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.