Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $484.18.

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup increased their price target 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. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of LIN opened at $475.02 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average of $462.66 and a 200 day moving average of $449.63. Linde has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.57 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Linde will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.