Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) issued 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. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.63 EPS. The company's revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $1.16 on Friday, hitting $457.31. 2,288,905 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,834,436. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde has a 52 week low of $385.12 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $473.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $451.73. The firm has a market cap of $218.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.88, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a $1.39 dividend. 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 currently 42.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $490.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were 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 $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.

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