Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Upgraded by Mizuho to Buy

Mizuho upgraded shares of Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $510.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock.

LIN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Citigroup downgraded Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

Linde stock opened at $446.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Linde has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The company has a market cap of $214.99 billion, a PE ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $453.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $417.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total transaction of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last three months. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Johnson Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 44.4% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $575,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 2,316 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $951,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Holderness Investments Co. boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 1,863 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $765,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fort Point Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fort Point Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. 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.