Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Sells 7,654 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. decreased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 311,122 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,654 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $136,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,744,033,000 after purchasing an additional 405,952 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in Linde by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,624,462,000 after buying an additional 138,585 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,112,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,365,647,000 after buying an additional 218,746 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $906,730,000 after buying an additional 23,155 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $471.91 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $458.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $449.30. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $479.79. The stock has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a PE ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

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.