Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Upgraded at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $535.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $500.00.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.90.

Linde Trading Up 0.1%

LIN opened at $477.17 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $460.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $450.38. The company has a market capitalization of $224.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.65, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.96. Linde has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.75 EPS. Analysts forecast that Linde will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Linde by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,551,000 after acquiring an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Linde by 5.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,470,284,000 after acquiring an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Linde by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,857,741,000 after buying an additional 554,480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Linde by 18.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.