Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.39

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of 1.39 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th.

Linde has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.8% annually over the last three years. Linde has a payout ratio of 32.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Linde to earn $17.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.6%.

Linde Trading Up 0.2 %

Linde stock opened at $454.40 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $438.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $439.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Linde has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $218.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. HSBC cut their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $470.10.

About Linde

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.