FWU Life Insurance Austria AG recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Basic Materials company by 479.84% to 1467.0 shares with purchase of 1214.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 0.00% valued currently at $0.0. In addition, Princeton Fund Advisors LLC raised its holdings by 55.0 to 55.0 shares.
With over 2.23 million Linde plc (LIN) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $334.83 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $746.08 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 16.65% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -1.96%. Currently, there are 493.71M common shares owned by the public and among those 491.60M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 30 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for LIN have a consensus price objective of $373.21. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $418.00 and a low of $299.39. The average price target is 11.53% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -11.84% over that period. But an upside of 19.9% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $376.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 177 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 86 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 649,945 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 91 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 524,731 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Linde plc are Nationwide Mellon Dynamic US Core, Nationwide Fund, and Nationwide VIT – S&P 500 Index Fu. Nationwide Mellon Dynamic US Core owns 14155.0 shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $0.0. Nationwide VIT – S&P 500 Index Fu now owns shares totaling to 0.00% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Linde plc (NYSE: LIN) opened at $338.74, down -$2.8 from a prior closing price of $341.54. However, the script later moved the day high at 340.63, down -1.96%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -6.49% and 0.06% over the past three months. LIN shares are trading 2.65% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 18.11% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $262.47 and touched a high of $362.74 over the same period. LIN has an average intraday trading volume of 2.50 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -1.86%, 0.78%, and 8.31% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Linde plc (NYSE: LIN) shares accounts for 85.80% of the company’s 493.71M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 0.00%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 0.00% and — respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $166.90B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.85. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 40.64, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $8.24. The company has a PEG of 4.01 and a Quick Ratio of 0.70 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.45. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.03% over the week and 2.04% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Linde plc (LIN) will achieve an EPS of $2.38 for the current quarter, $2.63 for the next quarter and $13.2 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.93 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $2.83. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $2.55 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 12.40%, and 10.30% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 10.14% over the next five years, compared to 7.70% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 30 brokerage firm advisors rate Linde plc (LIN) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.90. Specifically, 22 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 30 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the LIN, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Seaport Research Partners stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on October 13, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $330. Goldman coverage for the Linde plc (LIN) stock in a research note released on October 13, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $338. Stifel was of a view on August 10, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while Evercore ISI gave the stock Outperform rating on May 31, 2022, issuing a price target of $355. Credit Suisse on their part issued Outperform rating on May 31, 2022.
