Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $503.11.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Argus raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Linde

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Linde by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,551,000 after acquiring an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Linde by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,470,284,000 after acquiring an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Linde by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,857,741,000 after acquiring an additional 554,480 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Linde by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,511,751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $464.40 on Monday. Linde has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $218.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.12, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $451.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $447.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.75 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Linde will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

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.