Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. Decreases Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. cut its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 18.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,256 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,376 shares during the period. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,972,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,638,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,943,654,000 after purchasing an additional 292,492 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Linde by 5.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde in the second quarter valued at $3,098,772,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Linde by 4.8% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,044,833 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,897,755,000 after buying an additional 185,294 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $520.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Friday. Mizuho set a $495.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $516.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and eight have issued a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.00.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $423.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.85. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $486.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $424.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $455.09.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 19.38%. The business had revenue of $8.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.19%.

About Linde

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.