Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Downgraded by UBS Group to Neutral

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) was downgraded by stock analysts at UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $510.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $482.00. UBS Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.84% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Mizuho boosted their price target on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $448.93.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

LIN stock opened at $464.32 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $437.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $409.61. Linde has a one year low of $348.38 and a one year high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $223.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.16 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde will post 15.58 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,270,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $18,182,215,000 after buying an additional 210,911 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 0.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,118,836 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,666,886,000 after buying an additional 134,593 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,182,870,000 after acquiring an additional 354,506 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Linde by 6.0% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,315,068,000 after acquiring an additional 488,655 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Company Profile

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.