Linde plc operates as an industrial gas and engineering company in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia 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. The company also designs and constructs turnkey process plants for third-party customers, as well as for the gas businesses in various locations, such as olefin, natural gas, air separation, hydrogen, and synthesis gas plants. It serves a range of industries, including healthcare, energy, manufacturing, food, beverage carbonation, fiber-optics, steel making, aerospace, chemicals, and water treatment. The company was founded in 1879 and is based in Woking, the United Kingdom.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from €325.00 ($331.63) to €350.00 ($357.14) in a research note on Wednesday, August 10th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Linde from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $355.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 31st. Credit Suisse Group began coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, May 31st. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $380.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 10th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, AlphaValue upgraded shares of Linde to a "reduce" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $367.60.
Linde Price Performance
Shares of LIN Stock opened at $312.21 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a market capitalization of $155.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.87. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $293.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $303.69. Linde has a one year low of $265.12 and a one year high of $352.18.
Linde (NYSE:LIN - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The basic materials company reported $3.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.99 by $0.11. Linde had a net margin of 10.88% and a return on equity of 13.41%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.70 EPS. The company's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde will post 11.9 EPS for the current year.
Linde Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 2nd will be given a $1.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 1st. This represents a $4.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. Linde's payout ratio is presently 67.83%.