Seaport Res Ptn Comments on Linde plc’s Q1 2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:LIN)

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) – Investment analysts at Seaport Res Ptn raised their Q1 2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of Linde in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, April 17th. Seaport Res Ptn analyst M. Harrison now forecasts that the basic materials company will post earnings of $3.66 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $3.64. Seaport Res Ptn currently 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.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Mizuho upgraded Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.79.

Linde Trading Down 0.1 %

Linde stock opened at $446.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $214.99 billion, a PE ratio of 35.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $453.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $417.76. Linde has a 52 week low of $350.60 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.16 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $3,066,825,000. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at $1,892,774,000. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 888.7% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,741,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,329,889,000 after buying an additional 3,363,112 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 55.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,457,759 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,780,213,000 after buying an additional 1,956,394 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 450.3% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,141,656 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $698,566,000 after buying an additional 1,752,456 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.13%.

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.