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.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Linde from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 10th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $370.00 to $369.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 13th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Linde from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $355.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Linde from €370.00 ($377.55) to €355.00 ($362.24) and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 29th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Linde from €325.00 ($331.63) to €350.00 ($357.14) in a research note on Wednesday, August 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $367.60.
Linde Stock Performance
Shares of NYSE:LIN traded down $1.46 on Monday, hitting $310.09. 3,709 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,296,212. The company's 50 day moving average price is $294.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $303.71. Linde has a one year low of $265.12 and a one year high of $352.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $154.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.15, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.87.
Linde (NYSE:LIN - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 28th. The basic materials company reported $3.10 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.70 EPS. The business's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Linde will post 11.9 earnings per share for the current year.
Linde Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $1.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 1st. This represents a $4.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.83%.