JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock Price

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $475.00 to $455.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 10.62% from the stock’s previous close.

LIN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Citigroup raised their price target on Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $516.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $517.33.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded down $6.99 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $411.31. The company had a trading volume of 896,055 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,025,897. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $465.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $464.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $192.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.25, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Linde has a 12-month low of $408.65 and a 12-month high of $486.38.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This trade represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,098,772,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Linde by 172.4% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,407,637 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,121,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,702 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in 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 worth $3,511,751,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Linde by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,683,248 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $799,543,000 after purchasing an additional 760,954 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.