Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Has $114.07 Million Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 240,144 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 9,342 shares during the quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $114,068,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,243,000. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 967,516 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $459,570,000 after buying an additional 24,624 shares during the period. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 45.5% in the third quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 236,206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $112,198,000 after buying an additional 73,850 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 12.3% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 205,318 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $97,526,000 after acquiring an additional 22,489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its position in shares of Linde by 27.2% during the second quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 417,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $195,649,000 after acquiring an additional 89,129 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $493.92 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $467.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $450.27. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $387.78 and a 52-week high of $510.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.88 billion, a PE ratio of 33.85, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.82.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, EVP Sean Durbin sold 6,520 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $477.27, for a total value of $3,111,800.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,890,227.77. This trade represents a 44.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.45, for a total transaction of $4,542,654.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,636,202.10. This trade represents a 29.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 20,332 shares of company stock valued at $9,749,257 over the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $530.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, February 6th. CICC Research assumed coverage on Linde in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $510.00 target price for the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $545.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $455.00 to $525.00 in a report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $515.20.

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.