New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Purchases Shares of 23,336 Linde PLC $LIN

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board acquired a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 23,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,110,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 12.9% during the second quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Meadowbrook Advisors Group LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Meadowbrook Advisors Group LLC now owns 511 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Blalock Williams LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Blalock Williams LLC now owns 510 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $217,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC grew its position in Linde by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 1,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its position in Linde by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 4,159 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,062,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price objective on Linde in a research report on Monday, August 10th. UBS Group set a $612.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Linde from $559.00 to $564.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $600.00 to $580.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $545.38.

Linde Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $489.51 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $505.33 and its 200 day moving average is $501.23. The company has a market cap of $225.65 billion, a PE ratio of 31.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.72. 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 PLC has a 1 year low of $387.78 and a 1 year high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.49 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.02 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 20.09% and a net margin of 20.43%.The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.09 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.700-17.900 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 4.450-4.550 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.85 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.34%.

Linde Profile

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.