Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $484.18.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $28,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $472.13 on Friday. 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 has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.44 billion, a PE ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $450.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $447.57.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.57 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

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.