LIN YTD mountain Linde YTD Bottom line Industrial gas giant Linde (LIN) delivered the kind of quarter we've come to expect: Double-digit earnings growth and a lift to its profit guidance.
While the top-line sales figure was light, Linde's strong operating margin expansion in the quarter more than made up for it.
In good economic times and bad, Linde's model of continued margin expansion with project growth has enabled earnings per share growth of at least 10% annually.
That means the current backlog of $4.5 billion should be worth a few percentage points of earnings growth next year.
Linde sees fourth-quarter earnings per share falling to between $3.38 and $3.48, compared with the $3.46 consensus estimate from analysts.
Persons:
Linde, Jim Cramer, Jim, Matt White, Sanjiv Lamba, Lamba, Wall, —, Jim Cramer's
Organizations:
LIN, Linde, Morning, Management, CNBC, Tanks, Bloomberg, Getty