HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 8,360 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 306,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 8,360 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $145,538,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,098,772,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,683,248 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $799,543,000 after acquiring an additional 760,954 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its stake in Linde by 18.5% in the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 2,972,515 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,394,198,000 after acquiring an additional 463,977 shares during the period. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new stake in Linde in the second quarter valued at about $187,359,000. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its position in Linde by 48.7% in the second quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,131,132 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $530,617,000 after purchasing an additional 370,261 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on LIN. DZ Bank downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $460.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. CICC Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $510.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $530.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $508.20.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $481.00 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.84. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $437.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $447.42.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.02. Linde had a net margin of 20.30% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The company had revenue of $8.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Linde

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.