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Global industrial gases company supplying hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen to industrial customers, with a major clean hydrogen project pipeline.
Global industrial gases company supplying hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen to industrial customers, with a major clean hydrogen project pipeline.
Is paid under long-term contracts for gases made at or next to the customer's plant, often with minimum-take clauses so it is paid whether or not the customer uses full volume, plus bulk and cylinder gases for smaller buyers. Its push into very large clean-hydrogen projects was reassessed in 2025 under a new chief executive.
Moat: wide (scale, installed base, switching costs). Large fixed pipeline/plant infrastructure and long-term on-site supply contracts create very high switching costs.
Headquarters: Allentown, Pennsylvania, US · Founded: 1940 · Employees: 21,300
Size Air Products (APD) is a United States Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $67.9B, the 196th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $304.84 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 3.8%, against -6.2% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 6th highest of 13 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 4.5% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.6%); the operating margin is 24.3% (peer median 19.6%).
Valuation It trades at 21.2× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.1× (7th cheapest of 13).
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.7 points below its cost of capital (7.6% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $28.0B at 30 Jun 2026, up 8% on a year earlier — 2.2 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Air Products has 16 bonds outstanding ($11.0B), rated A by the agencies and trading like A at a weighted spread of 72 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 2.1% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 4 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $12.6B | $12.0B | $12.1B | $12.6B | $12.7B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | -4% | -1% | — |
| Gross profit | $4.05B | $3.79B | $3.93B | $3.77B | $3.36B |
| EBITDA | $4.61B | $4.35B | $4.34B | $4.07B | $3.70B |
| Net income | -$47.3M | -$394M | $3.84B | $2.29B | $2.24B |
| Free cash flow | -$301M | -$3.77B | -$3.15B | -$1.42B | $244M |
| Capital expenditure | $4.87B | $7.02B | $6.80B | $4.63B | $2.93B |
| Total debt | $18.2B | $18.4B | $15.0B | $11.0B | $8.33B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Products APD | $67.9B | +4% | +5% | 24% | 21.2× | n/a |
| Linde LIN | $237B | +5% | +8% | 27% | 27.0× | 14.4% |
| Air Liquide AI.PA | $134B | +15% | -1% | 21% | 29.0× | 18.1% |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 16.9× | 7.8% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | APD | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +9.5% | +5.1% | 3rd highest of 13 |
| 6-month return | +3.8% | -6.2% | 6th highest of 13 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -5.9% | -15.9% | 6th highest of 13 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +4.5% | +4.6% | 7th highest of 13 |
| Operating margin | 24.3% | 19.6% | 5th highest of 13 |
| Forward P/E | 21.2× | 22.1× | 7th cheapest of 13 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -0.7 pp | +2.9 pp | 4th lowest of 13 |
| EV / EBITDA | 19.1× | 16.3× | 5th most expensive of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.7× | 1.8× | most indebted of 10 |
| Bond spread | 72 bp | 68 bp | 4th widest of 8 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Products APD | United States | $67.9B | +4% | +5% | 24% | 21.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Shin-etsu Chemical 4063.T | Japan | $66.5B | -27% | +5% | 25% | 17.2× | 8.9% | +11.4% |
| Ecolab ECL | United States | $84.3B | +19% | +9% | 18% | 33.6× | 19.7% | +6.4% |
| Basf BAS.DE | Germany | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% | +0.2% |
| Air Liquide AI.PA | France | $134B | +15% | -1% | 21% | 29.0× | 18.1% | +5.6% |
| Novonesis A/S NSIS-B.CO | Denmark | $32.1B | +22% | +5% | 21% | 30.0× | 13.2% | +17.2% |
| Ems-chemie EMSN.SW | Switzerland | $24.3B | +28% | -3% | 30% | 39.4× | 8.6% | +1.6% |
| Ningxia Baofeng Energy 600989.SS | China | $23.4B | -31% | +35% | 35% | 8.4× | -7.8% | +24.8% |
| Dow DOW | United States | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% | +0.7% |
| LyondellBasell LYB | United States | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% | +1.7% |
| China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech 600111.SS | China | $19.6B | -31% | +29% | 11% | 28.5× | 24.6% | +14.2% |
| Linde LIN | United States | $237B | +5% | +8% | 27% | 27.0× | 14.4% | +4.5% |
| Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS | China | $17.5B | -25% | -8% | 8% | 9.2× | -8.0% | +5.1% |
Air Products has 16 bonds outstanding with $11.0B face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like A. Weighted yield 4.89%, a spread of 72 bp over government bonds.
Air Products reported $28.0B of remaining performance obligations at 30 Jun 2026, up 8% from a year earlier and flat from the previous quarter. That is 2.2 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.00.