Linde price target raised to $375 from $355 at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI raised the firm’s price target on Linde to $375 from $355 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The company’s repurchases over the last two disclosed weeks in February "swelled" to $576M, but with its balance sheet cash well above the historical average, residual buybacks could be a further tailwind in the first half of 2023, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm also sees recovering U.S. pipeline volumes and the nexAir acquisition as mostly offsetting China seasonality and lower engineering sales in Q2.