Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Buys 1,750 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,750 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $831,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Flossbach Von Storch SE bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter worth about $438,525,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,558,016,000 after buying an additional 719,052 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 162.9% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,097,110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $543,951,000 after buying an additional 679,738 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in Linde by 394.8% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 629,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $312,240,000 after buying an additional 502,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Linde by 2,320.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 464,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $230,038,000 after buying an additional 444,838 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded up $4.07 during trading on Monday, hitting $502.50. 644,911 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,319,094. The company has a market cap of $231.64 billion, a PE ratio of 32.45, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $478.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $498.14. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $548.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd were paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Evercore upped their price target on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Barclays began coverage on Linde in a research report on Monday, October 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $577.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Berenberg Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $547.10.

Linde Profile

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.