Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of $15.30-15.60 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $15.41.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $429.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup cut shares of 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 boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $460.15.

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $3.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $423.60. The company had a trading volume of 2,657,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,803,659. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Linde has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $455.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $422.69. The company has a market capitalization of $204.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.5 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total value of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Linde news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total transaction of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,271,882.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.70% 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.