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

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $457.31 on Friday. Linde has a 52 week low of $385.12 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $472.87 and a 200-day moving average of $451.82. 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 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America raised their price target 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. 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. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.