Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.07 EPS

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) issued 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 return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Linde updated its FY24 guidance to $15.30-15.60 EPS.

Linde Stock Down 5.3 %

Shares of LIN stock traded down $23.39 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $419.23. The stock had a trading volume of 1,109,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,176,525. Linde has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month high of $477.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $456.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $422.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 44.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $460.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.