Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target Raised to $507.00

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price objective upped by BMO Capital Markets from $477.00 to $507.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $457.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $218.37 billion, a PE ratio of 34.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $472.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $451.90. Linde has a twelve month low of $385.12 and a twelve month high of $487.49.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 566.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth approximately $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 47,830.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $446,377,000 after buying an additional 934,123 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 91.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth approximately $210,480,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

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.