Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

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

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock traded up $3.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $423.60. 2,657,419 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,803,659. The stock 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business’s 50-day moving average is $455.47 and its 200-day moving average is $422.69. Linde has a 12-month low of $350.60 and a 12-month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. Linde’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde will post 15.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid 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 yield of 1.31%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on LIN. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. 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, Linde presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $460.15.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares in the company, valued at $3,177,248.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business’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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 13,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.14, for a total value of $6,030,344.76. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,248.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Company 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.