Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04, Zacks reports. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. Linde updated its FY 2025 guidance to 16.150-16.550 EPS and its Q1 2025 guidance to 3.850-3.950 EPS.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock traded up $1.08 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $454.78. The company had a trading volume of 766,659 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,333,362. 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 $410.69 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company’s fifty day moving average is $434.41 and its 200-day moving average is $453.44. The company has a market capitalization of $216.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.94.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,493,586.48. This represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.