Jackson Square Partners LLC Has $4.07 Million Stock Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Jackson Square Partners LLC decreased its stake in Linde PLC by 15.1%, selling 1,560 shares and holding a total of 8,747 shares valued at $4,073,000.
• In the fourth quarter, multiple institutional investors increased their holdings in Linde, with notable increases including Jump Financial LLC, which raised its position by 300.3%.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, set to be paid on September 18th, with an annualized yield of 1.3%.

Jackson Square Partners LLC lessened its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 15.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,747 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,560 shares during the period. Jackson Square Partners LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $4,073,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Linde by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,857,741,000 after purchasing an additional 554,480 shares during the last quarter. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $2,128,233,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,925,322 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,062,085,000 after purchasing an additional 500,489 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,812,461 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,596,163,000 after purchasing an additional 12,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group lifted 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 59,557 shares of company stock valued at $28,037,479. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded up $2.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $472.42. 939,239 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,504,921. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $221.52 billion, a PE ratio of 33.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $467.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $458.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%. Linde's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

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.