Primecap Management Co. CA Purchases 15,000 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 538,920 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 15,000 shares during the quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA owned approximately 0.12% of Linde worth $255,987,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $736,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 19.3% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 897 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $421,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 18,864 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,850,000 after buying an additional 1,055 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. DZ Bank cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. CICC Research assumed coverage on Linde in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $510.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $508.20.

Linde Stock Up 0.8%

LIN stock opened at $508.27 on Thursday. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $387.78 and a 52 week high of $509.62. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $451.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $449.02. 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 company has a market cap of $237.34 billion, a PE ratio of 34.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.84.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $8.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.64 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.30% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.97 EPS. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. Linde’s payout ratio is 41.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $480.45, for a total transaction of $4,542,654.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at $10,636,202.10. This represents a 29.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.