Mizuho Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price target boosted by Mizuho from $520.00 to $530.00 in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

LIN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America raised their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $458.32 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde has a twelve month low of $385.12 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.85 billion, a PE ratio of 34.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $472.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $451.98.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde will post 15.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 16.9% in the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Linde by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the third quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $873,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CNB Bank increased its stake in shares of Linde by 2.9% during the first quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $393,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.