BMO Capital Markets Lowers Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target to $475.00

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price objective trimmed by BMO Capital Markets from $510.00 to $475.00 in a research note published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on LIN. Citigroup lowered shares of Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and upped their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a peer perform rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $429.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Mizuho boosted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $464.69.

Linde Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $427.71 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $454.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $424.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.18, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. Linde has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. Linde’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,948 shares of company stock valued at $35,687,605 over the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 122.6% in the third quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 69 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.