ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 4,917 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,917 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,334,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Linde by 3.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 719,052 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,402,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,303,494,000 after buying an additional 1,114,751 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Linde by 13.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,796,000 after buying an additional 373,012 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Linde by 2.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,358,712,000 after buying an additional 64,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Linde by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,250,532 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $959,605,000 after buying an additional 343,161 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America increased their price target on Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price objective on Linde and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Evercore increased their target price on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Berenberg Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $547.29.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $492.70 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $478.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $498.13. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $548.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $227.12 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.71.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related equipment and process technologies to customers in healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, food and beverage, electronics, and other industries. Its products include oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases.

The company provides gases through on-site production facilities, pipelines, bulk deliveries and packaged cylinders. It also designs and builds industrial gas plants and offers technologies and services for applications such as hydrogen production, carbon capture, clean energy, semiconductor manufacturing, metal fabrication and medical care.

Linde traces its history to 1879, when German engineer Carl von Linde developed refrigeration and gas-related technologies.