Brokerages Set Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target at $484.18

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $484.18.

LIN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $456.85 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $451.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $447.87. Linde has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $479.79. The firm has a market cap of $218.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.44, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.