Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Has $120.22 Million Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 26.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 287,155 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,302 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $120,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $2,901,853,000. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,834,631,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 56,467.9% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,097,982 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $459,692,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096,041 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Linde by 2,293.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 782,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $327,593,000 after purchasing an additional 749,763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $308,251,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.3 %

LIN opened at $449.53 on Friday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $454.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $450.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.59 billion, a PE ratio of 33.03, 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.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Argus upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. TD Cowen upgraded Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $498.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.