Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04, Zacks reports. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. Linde updated its FY 2025 guidance to 16.150-16.550 EPS and its Q1 2025 guidance to 3.850-3.950 EPS.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $455.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $434.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $453.49. Linde has a one year low of $410.69 and a one year high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.94.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. This trade represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

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.