Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $541.9091.

LIN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on Linde from $580.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $560.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Linde from $552.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $512.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $506.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $475.01. Linde has a 52-week low of $387.78 and a 52-week high of $525.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.72.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.27 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 20.44%.The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.600-17.900 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 4.400-4.500 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde will post 17.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.50%.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,953,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,167,559,000 after purchasing an additional 354,800 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,176,828,000 after purchasing an additional 172,162 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,820,533,000 after acquiring an additional 35,945 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Linde by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,127,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,318,325,000 after purchasing an additional 797,866 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Linde by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,784,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,171,959,000 after purchasing an additional 695,771 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Company Profile

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.