Citigroup Increases Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target to $480.00

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $470.00 to $480.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective points to a potential upside of 8.42% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. HSBC cut their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $464.25.

Linde Stock Up 1.8 %

LIN stock traded up $7.84 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $442.73. The company had a trading volume of 845,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,025,298. The company has a 50 day moving average of $434.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $435.23. The company has a market capitalization of $212.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.35, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.93. Linde has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The business’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.42 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Linde will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,066,825,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $851,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,538 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 104.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,672,000 after acquiring an additional 468,415 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 91.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after acquiring an additional 463,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $210,480,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.