Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Declares $1.39 Quarterly Dividend

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of 1.39 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th.

Linde has increased its dividend by an average of 9.8% annually over the last three years. Linde has a dividend payout ratio of 32.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Linde to earn $17.11 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 32.5%.

Linde Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $478.25 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $448.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $447.10. Linde has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $479.79.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. HSBC decreased their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group cut their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

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.