Linde plc (LIN) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 3rd

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of 1.39 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd.

Linde has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.8% annually over the last three years. Linde has a payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Linde to earn $17.05 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.6%.

Linde Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $460.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde has a 12-month low of $396.07 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.00, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $467.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $454.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.63 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Linde will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This trade represents a 36.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $490.75.

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.