Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) PT Raised to $512.00 at Mizuho

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price target increased by Mizuho from $510.00 to $512.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on LIN. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $464.69.

Linde Trading Up 0.7 %

LIN opened at $426.62 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $205.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $455.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $423.74. Linde has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.5 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $421,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,390 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,503,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 26.7% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,468 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,003,000 after acquiring an additional 1,365 shares during the period. Motive Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $247,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP increased its position in shares of Linde by 104.9% in the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 3,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,934 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.