Linde plc (LIN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.50 on March 27th

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 1.50 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39.

Linde has raised its dividend payment by an average of 37.9% annually over the last three years. Linde has a payout ratio of 30.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Linde to earn $18.02 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 30.9%.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $460.28. 2,069,127 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,226,290. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $439.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $454.75. Linde has a twelve month low of $410.69 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $219.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares in the company, valued at $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986 in the last three months. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on LIN shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

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.