Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Purchases New Position in Linde PLC $LIN

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

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Prairie Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 100.4% in the 3rd quarter. Prairie Advisory LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 4,453 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,114,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the third quarter worth $384,000. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management bought a new stake in Linde in the third quarter worth $224,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on LIN shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $612.00 to $574.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Evercore increased their price objective on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $547.10.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded up $4.07 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $502.50. 644,911 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,319,094. Linde PLC has a one year low of $387.78 and a one year high of $548.20. The company’s 50 day moving average is $478.52 and its 200 day moving average is $498.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.49 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.02 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.43% and a return on equity of 20.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm 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. On average, research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 41.34%.

Linde Company 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.