Saturna Capital Corp Raises Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Saturna Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 141,721 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 5,419 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for 0.8% of Saturna Capital Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $60,428,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $19,167,559,000 after acquiring an additional 354,800 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,176,828,000 after acquiring an additional 172,162 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Linde by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,820,533,000 after purchasing an additional 35,945 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Linde by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,127,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,318,325,000 after buying an additional 797,866 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,246,750,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $525.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $560.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $541.91.

Linde Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $509.16 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $235.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $503.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $470.42. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $387.78 and a fifty-two week high of $522.89.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.27 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.60 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 20.44%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.95 EPS. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.50%.

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.