Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $490.75.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank restated a "hold" rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho upped their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Prentice Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $652,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $873,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 445 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $195,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded down $6.86 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $442.58. 2,833,866 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,858,530. Linde has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $464.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $455.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. Linde's quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.63 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Linde will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.