Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Increases Dividend to $1.50 Per Share

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of 1.50 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39.

Linde has raised its dividend payment by an average of 37.9% annually over the last three years. Linde has a payout ratio of 30.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Linde to earn $18.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.9%.

Linde Trading Down 0.3 %

Linde stock traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $460.28. 2,069,127 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,226,290. The firm has a market cap of $219.17 billion, a PE ratio of 33.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $439.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $454.75. Linde has a 12-month low of $410.69 and a 12-month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Research analysts expect that Linde will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen upgraded 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 report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. The trade was a 31.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.