Q1 2024 EPS Estimates for Linde plc Lifted by Seaport Res Ptn (NASDAQ:LIN)

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) - Equities researchers at Seaport Res Ptn raised their Q1 2024 earnings estimates for Linde in a report released on Wednesday, April 17th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst M. Harrison now expects that the basic materials company will post earnings per share of $3.66 for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $3.64. Seaport Res Ptn has a "Neutral" rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Linde's current full-year earnings is $15.58 per share. Seaport Res Ptn also issued estimates for Linde's Q3 2024 earnings at $3.96 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $17.07 EPS.

LIN has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group cut Linde from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup cut Linde from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Linde from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $456.79.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $446.30. 1,831,170 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,251,431. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $453.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $418.29. Linde has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $214.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.06% and a net margin of 18.87%. The business's revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.16 EPS.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $1.39 dividend. This is an increase from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde's payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Matthew J. White sold 51,231 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.84, for a total value of $23,353,139.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 57,634 shares in the company, valued at $26,271,882.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Linde

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,270,204 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $18,182,215,000 after buying an additional 210,911 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $7,103,185,000 after buying an additional 372,780 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,182,870,000 after buying an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after buying an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Linde by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,315,068,000 after buying an additional 488,655 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.