Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Mizuho

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Mizuho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $510.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 14.15% from the stock’s previous close.

LIN has been the subject of several other reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. 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 report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

Linde Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $446.79 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $452.70 and a 200-day moving average of $417.56. The firm has a market cap of $215.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.93. Linde has a twelve month low of $350.60 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.16 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,600,000. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,480,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,045,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in Linde by 156.3% during the 4th quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 10,121 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,146,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,679,000. 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.