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

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. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.63 EPS. Linde’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $1.16 during trading on Friday, hitting $457.31. 2,347,307 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,834,612. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $473.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $451.73. Linde has a 52-week low of $385.12 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap 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 company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid 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 dividend yield of 1.22%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $490.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde 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 owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.