Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target Raised to $580.00 at Citigroup

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price target lifted by Citigroup from $545.00 to $580.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $550.00 to $579.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Mizuho set a $525.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $455.00 to $525.00 in a research report on Friday, March 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $521.60.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $508.67 on Monday. Linde has a 1 year low of $387.78 and a 1 year high of $510.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company’s 50-day moving average is $488.92 and its 200 day moving average is $452.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $235.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.78.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.02. Linde had a net margin of 20.30% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The company had revenue of $8.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.97 earnings per share. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.400-17.900 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Linde will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.87%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $480.79, for a total transaction of $2,094,802.03. Following the sale, the vice president owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,643,729.02. The trade was a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Sean Durbin sold 6,520 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $477.27, for a total transaction of $3,111,800.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,890,227.77. The trade was a 44.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 20,332 shares of company stock worth $9,749,257 in the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,167,559,000 after acquiring an additional 354,800 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,176,828,000 after acquiring an additional 172,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,820,533,000 after acquiring an additional 35,945 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Linde by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,127,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,318,325,000 after acquiring an additional 797,866 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,784,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,171,959,000 after buying an additional 695,771 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Company Profile

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.