Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $1.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $457.31. The stock had a trading volume of 2,347,307 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,834,612. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $473.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $451.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.37 billion, a PE ratio of 34.88, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde has a 12 month low of $385.12 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America increased their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.