GW&K Investment Management LLC Sells 1,729 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

GW&K Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 105,040 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,729 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $49,894,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $736,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 19.3% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 897 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $421,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the period. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 591.7% during the second quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 166 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $530.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Linde from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Mizuho set a $525.00 price target on Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Erste Group Bank raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $508.20.

Linde Stock Down 0.5%

LIN stock opened at $499.19 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.32 billion, a PE ratio of 34.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $510.65. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $459.24 and its 200-day moving average is $449.99.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.45, for a total value of $4,542,654.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,636,202.10. This represents a 29.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.