Analysts Set Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) PT at $501.82

Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $501.82.

Several equities analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. The trade was a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986 over the last quarter. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 372.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,288,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,958,000 after purchasing an additional 2,592,682 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $468,360,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $461.40 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde has a one year low of $410.69 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $439.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $454.75.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Linde will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.85%.

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.