Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04, Zacks reports. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Linde updated its FY 2025 guidance to 16.150-16.550 EPS and its Q1 2025 guidance to 3.850-3.950 EPS.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $455.05 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The business’s 50 day moving average is $434.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $453.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.43, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. Linde has a 12-month low of $410.69 and a 12-month high of $487.49.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho raised 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research 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 MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds bought 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.60% 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.