Jackson Square Partners LLC Has $4.32 Million Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Jackson Square Partners LLC trimmed its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,307 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 513 shares during the quarter. Jackson Square Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $221,000. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 2,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $891,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association increased its stake in Linde by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 33,216 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $13,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modern Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Linde by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.82.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $459.09 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.73, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $453.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $454.18. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $410.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.09%.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,477 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total transaction of $1,163,545.98. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at $610,662. This trade represents a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total value of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,393,571.38. This represents a 17.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843 over the last ninety days. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Linde

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.