Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Raised to Strong-Buy at Barclays

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Barclays to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, Zacks reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Thursday, September 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $542.00 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, October 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. 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. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $547.29.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $492.70 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization 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 price of $478.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $498.13. Linde has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.49 by $0.01. Linde had a net margin of 20.43% and a return on equity of 20.09%. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.09 EPS. Linde’s quarterly 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. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde will post 17.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Linde

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,558,016,000 after acquiring an additional 719,052 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Linde by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,402,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,303,494,000 after acquiring an additional 1,114,751 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in Linde by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,567,796,000 after purchasing an additional 373,012 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Linde by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,358,712,000 after purchasing an additional 64,078 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Linde by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $805,475,000 after purchasing an additional 361,664 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

About Linde

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.