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. Investors 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 is Thursday, March 13th. This is a 7.9% increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39.

Linde has raised its dividend by an average of 37.9% annually over the last three years. Linde has a payout ratio of 33.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Linde to earn $18.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.3%.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $462.06 on Tuesday. Linde has a one year low of $410.69 and a one year high of $487.49. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $445.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $455.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $218.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.95, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,393,571.38. This trade represents a 17.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,377 shares of company stock valued at $6,567,231. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in Linde stock. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 6,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,752,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.