Maple Capital Management Inc. Purchases New Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Maple Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 2.3%

LIN stock opened at $483.59 on Friday. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $226.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.39, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $472.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $462.80.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $519.63.

Linde Profile

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.