Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Raised to “Buy” at Mizuho

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) was upgraded by stock analysts at Mizuho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $510.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock. Mizuho’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 14.27% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on LIN. Citigroup cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. 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. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $446.30 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $453.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $418.29. The company has a market capitalization of $214.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. Linde has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 122.6% in the 3rd quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

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.