Czech National Bank Has $52.50 Million Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Czech National Bank increased its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 123,128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,034 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $52,501,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Linde by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $736,000 after buying an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. grew its stake in Linde by 19.3% in the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 897 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $421,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth $998,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on LIN. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Linde from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Erste Group Bank raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Mizuho set a $525.00 target price on Linde in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Linde from $540.00 to $545.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $515.20.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $492.34 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $228.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.82. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $475.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $450.96. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $387.78 and a twelve month high of $510.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.88.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.87%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, EVP Sean Durbin sold 6,520 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.27, for a total value of $3,111,800.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,890,227.77. The trade was a 44.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at $10,636,202.10. This trade represents a 29.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 20,332 shares of company stock valued at $9,749,257 in the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.