Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Receives $503.11 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $503.11.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth $2,097,793,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 58,312.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,590,596,000 after buying an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Linde by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,834,631,000 after buying an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $472.71 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $222.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.73, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $452.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $448.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Linde has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.75 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.57%.

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.