William Blair Investment Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Linde PLC $LIN

William Blair Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 537,411 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 66,615 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $255,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 0.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,638,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,943,654,000 after purchasing an additional 292,492 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,098,772,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Linde by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,044,833 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,897,755,000 after buying an additional 185,294 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,718,376 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,744,588,000 after buying an additional 24,046 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,605,118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,690,961,000 after buying an additional 40,216 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $480.45, for a total value 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 $10,636,202.10. This represents a 29.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $508.08 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $454.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $449.46. The stock has a market cap of $235.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.84. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $510.65.

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 company had revenue of $8.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.64 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.52% and a net margin of 20.30%.Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm 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. Equities analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $540.00 to $490.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, November 3rd. DZ Bank cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $460.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Linde from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $508.20.

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.