Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.63 EPS.

Linde Stock Up 0.3 %

LIN traded up $1.16 on Friday, hitting $457.31. The company had a trading volume of 2,288,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,834,436. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $473.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $451.73. Linde has a 12-month low of $385.12 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, 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. Six 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

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.