BMO Capital Markets Issues Positive Forecast for Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock Price

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price objective upped by investment analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $477.00 to $507.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price target indicates a potential upside of 10.94% from the stock’s current price.

LIN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Bank of America upped their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $486.91.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded up $0.85 during trading on Friday, hitting $457.00. 771,560 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,827,279. Linde has a one year low of $385.12 and a one year high of $487.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $473.04 and its 200 day moving average is $451.73. 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 firm has a market cap of $218.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.63 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde will post 15.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth $43,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.