Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Purchases New Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 169,000 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $70,755,000. Linde accounts for about 0.8% of Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 1,160.0% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three 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, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $503.11.

Linde Stock Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $0.68 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $464.76. 715,862 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,952,720. The company has a fifty day moving average of $451.64 and a 200 day moving average of $447.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $218.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.00.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. Linde's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th will be given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's payout ratio is 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,725 shares of company stock worth $5,385,750 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.