Linde (LIN) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Linde (LIN) closed the most recent trading day at $296.83, moving -0.53% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.95% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.64%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.15%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the gas supplier had lost 5.52% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Oils-Energy sector's loss of 7.59% and lagged the S&P 500's loss of 3.49% in that time.
Linde will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Linde is projected to report earnings of $2.99 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.74%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.39 billion, up 10.65% from the prior-year quarter.
LIN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $11.93 per share and revenue of $33.38 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +11.6% and +8.41%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Linde. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.1% higher. Linde is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note Linde's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 25.02. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 20.43.
We can also see that LIN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.5. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. LIN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.44 as of yesterday's close.
The Oil and Gas - Field Services industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 83, which puts it in the top 33% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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