Wedbush Securities Inc. Buys New Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Wedbush Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,552 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,059,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanders Morris Harris LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the third quarter valued at about $847,000. First Financial Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at about $4,034,000. Hikari Power Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $20,965,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the third quarter worth about $1,875,000. Finally, Generali Investments Management Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $2,931,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus lowered their target price on Linde from $563.00 to $538.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 28th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Linde from $612.00 to $574.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 5th. KeyCorp started coverage on Linde in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $542.00 price target on the stock. Evercore lifted their price target on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Linde from $553.00 to $549.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $547.10.

Linde Trading Down 0.3%

LIN stock traded down $1.53 on Friday, reaching $508.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,665,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,058,353. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $480.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $498.37. The firm has a market cap of $234.56 billion, a PE ratio of 32.87, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.88. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.09 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.700-17.900 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 4.450-4.550 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.86 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

About Linde

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.