Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Has $121.20 Million Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Epoch Investment Partners Inc. reduced its stake in Linde PLC by 4.8%, selling 12,999 shares to own about 0.06% of the company, representing a value of $121.2 million.
• Analysts have a positive outlook for Linde, with an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.63, indicating expected growth.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50, scheduled to be paid on September 18th, which reflects an annualized dividend yield of 1.3%.

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lessened its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 4.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 260,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 12,999 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of Linde worth $121,199,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AlTi Global Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $971,000. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 75.0% in the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $90,131,000 after buying an additional 82,952 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,841,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the period. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $468,360,000. Finally, Hourglass Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $935,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded down $3.86 on Friday, hitting $478.29. 2,058,214 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,058,015. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $470.89 and a 200-day moving average of $461.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $224.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.92.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%.The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.85 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Linde has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.300-16.500 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 4.100-4.20 EPS. Analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.