Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Updates Q3 Earnings Guidance

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) updated its third quarter earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $3.82-3.92 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $3.95. Linde also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 15.400-15.600 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $477.25.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $0.66 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $454.00. 2,714,589 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,497,816. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $439.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $439.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Linde has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. Research analysts predict that Linde will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

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.