Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target Cut to $455.00 by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price objective trimmed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $475.00 to $455.00 in a report issued on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

LIN has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $516.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $514.83.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $412.18 on Monday. Linde has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $486.38. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $464.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $464.32. The firm has a market cap of $193.28 billion, a PE ratio of 29.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The business had revenue of $8.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.94 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.350-16.450 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Linde will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 40.19%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,638,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,943,654,000 after purchasing an additional 292,492 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Linde by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Linde by 18.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,098,772,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,097,793,000. 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.