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

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $484.18.

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. HSBC cut their price target on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group grew its position in shares of Linde by 655.7% during the 4th quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 597 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,897,000. Finally, Cloverfields Capital Group LP acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $718,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of LIN stock traded up $5.52 on Friday, hitting $478.25. The stock had a trading volume of 1,385,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,899,248. The firm has a market cap of $229.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. Linde has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $448.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $446.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The firm's revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

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.