Bank of America Boosts Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target to $516.00

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price objective hoisted by Bank of America from $495.00 to $516.00 in a research note published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. HSBC dropped their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $441.86 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $440.13 and a 200 day moving average of $440.49. The company has a market capitalization of $212.39 billion, a PE ratio of 34.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Linde has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $3,066,825,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $851,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $420,720,000. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,672,000 after acquiring an additional 468,415 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 91.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after purchasing an additional 463,096 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.