Royal Bank of Canada Begins Coverage on Linde (NASDAQ:LIN)

Royal Bank of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The firm set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the basic materials company's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 23.61% from the company's previous close.

LIN has been the subject of several other research reports. Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $510.40.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded down $4.55 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $465.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,414,599 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,970,686. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.97. The company's 50-day moving average is $455.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Linde has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.75 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Linde

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $2,128,233,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth $2,097,793,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,590,596,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,087 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Company Profile

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.