Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Makes New $1.16 Million Investment in Linde PLC $LIN

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,448 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,162,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 42,539.0% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,321,809 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $56,361,000 after buying an additional 1,318,709 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,402,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,303,494,000 after buying an additional 1,114,751 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at about $438,525,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 129.9% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,445,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $616,435,000 after buying an additional 816,744 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased 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 worth $10,558,016,000 after acquiring an additional 719,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ LIN opened at $492.70 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $478.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $498.13. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.09 EPS. The business’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, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LIN. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 target price on shares of Linde and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. UBS Group dropped their price target 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 upgraded Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Linde from $580.00 to $560.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued 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 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.