Ledyard National Bank Makes New $2.36 Million Investment in Linde PLC $LIN

Ledyard National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,967 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,358,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 74.2% in the second quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 54 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 96.6% during the 1st quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 57 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1,450.0% during the 1st quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 62 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Polaris Financial Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LIN. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Linde from $553.00 to $549.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, October 5th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Linde from $612.00 to $574.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday. Finally, DZ Bank reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $547.10.

Linde Stock Up 2.0%

LIN opened at $510.36 on Friday. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $548.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $480.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $498.29. The company has a market cap of $235.27 billion, a PE ratio of 32.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.49 by $0.01. Linde had a net margin of 20.43% and a return on equity of 20.09%. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.02 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.09 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.700-17.900 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 4.450-4.550 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.34%.

About Linde

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.