BMO Capital Markets Lowers Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Price Target to $546.00

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price target lowered by equities researchers at BMO Capital Markets from $560.00 to $546.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective points to a potential upside of 11.43% from the company’s previous close.

LIN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $559.00 to $564.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Linde from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $600.00 to $580.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $576.00 to $553.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, UBS Group set a $612.00 price objective on Linde in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $542.50.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $489.98 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. Linde has a 1-year low of $387.78 and a 1-year high of $548.20. The company has a market cap of $225.87 billion, a PE ratio of 31.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $513.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $498.26.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.49 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.02 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 20.09% and a net margin of 20.43%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.09 EPS. 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 research analysts anticipate that Linde will post 17.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 354,800 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Linde by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,319,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,176,828,000 after buying an additional 172,162 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Linde by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,353,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,820,533,000 after buying an additional 35,945 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,127,594 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,318,325,000 after acquiring an additional 797,866 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Linde by 7.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 695,771 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

About Linde

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.