Linde (LIN) to Release Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) is scheduled to announce its earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, May 2nd. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $3.68 per share for the quarter. Parties interested in registering for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.16 EPS. On average, analysts expect Linde to post $16 EPS for the current fiscal year and $17 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Linde Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $444.32 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $213.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.26, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. Linde has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $455.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $420.11. 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 Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $456.79.

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.