Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07, RTT News reports. 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 analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Linde updated its FY24 guidance to $15.30-15.60 EPS.

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

Linde stock traded up $3.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $423.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,657,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,803,659. Linde has a 1 year low of $350.60 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $455.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $422.38.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $460.15.

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.