Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock Moved Up to Strong-Buy by Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday,Zacks reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. UBS Group cut their target price on Linde from $612.00 to $574.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price target on Linde and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Linde from $580.00 to $560.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Linde from $576.00 to $553.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $547.29.

Linde Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of LIN stock opened at $492.70 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $227.12 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a 50-day moving average of $478.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $498.13. Linde has a 1-year low of $387.78 and a 1-year high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.49 by $0.01. Linde had a net margin of 20.43% and a return on equity of 20.09%. The business had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.09 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.700-17.900 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 4.450-4.550 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Linde will post 17.86 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 41.34%.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 74.2% in the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 54 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID raised its holdings in Linde by 96.6% during the first quarter. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID now owns 57 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 1,450.0% during the first quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 62 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Polaris Financial Partners purchased a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related equipment and process technologies to customers in healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, food and beverage, electronics, and other industries. Its products include oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases.

The company provides gases through on-site production facilities, pipelines, bulk deliveries and packaged cylinders. It also designs and builds industrial gas plants and offers technologies and services for applications such as hydrogen production, carbon capture, clean energy, semiconductor manufacturing, metal fabrication and medical care.

Linde traces its history to 1879, when German engineer Carl von Linde developed refrigeration and gas-related technologies.