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World's largest industrial gases company, supplying oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other gases to industrial, healthcare and energy customers.
World's largest industrial gases company, supplying oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other gases to industrial, healthcare and energy customers.
Sells gases three ways: under long-term take-or-pay contracts to large on-site plants, where customers pay for a minimum volume whether or not they use it; as bulk liquid delivered by truck; and in cylinders to smaller buyers. It was formed by the 2018 merger of Linde AG and Praxair.
Moat: wide (scale, installed base, switching costs). Massive fixed pipeline/plant infrastructure and long-term on-site supply contracts create very high switching costs.
Headquarters: Woking, United Kingdom · Founded: 2018 · Employees: 65,177
Size Linde (LIN) is a United States Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $237B, the 48th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $515.25 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 4.8%, against -12.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 6th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 8.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +2.8%); the operating margin is 27.1% (peer median 16.4%).
Valuation It trades at 27.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 18.0× (7th most expensive of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 14% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +10 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.9 points above its cost of capital (8.0% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $66.0B at 30 Sep 2026, up 6% on a year earlier — 1.8 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Linde has 3 bonds outstanding ($1.68B), rated A by the agencies and trading like AA+ at a weighted spread of 62 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 1.3% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 11 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $36.2B | $34.0B | $33.0B | $32.9B | $33.4B |
| Revenue growth | — | +3% | 0% | -2% | — |
| Gross profit | $13.5B | $12.8B | $12.1B | $11.5B | $9.71B |
| EBITDA | $13.6B | $13.0B | $12.4B | $11.9B | $10.7B |
| Net income | $7.01B | $6.90B | $6.57B | $6.20B | $4.15B |
| Free cash flow | $5.08B | $5.09B | $4.93B | $5.52B | $5.69B |
| Capital expenditure | $5.63B | $5.26B | $4.50B | $3.79B | $3.17B |
| Total debt | $26.7B | $28.1B | $22.6B | $20.3B | $18.8B |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linde LIN | $237B | +5% | +8% | 27% | 27.0× | 14.4% |
| Air Products APD | $67.9B | +4% | +5% | 24% | 21.2× | n/a |
| 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 | LIN | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +7.0% | +0.8% | 5th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +4.8% | -12.9% | 6th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -6.0% | -22.6% | 8th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +8.2% | +2.8% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 27.1% | 16.4% | 4th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 27.0× | 18.0× | 7th most expensive of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 14.4% | 8.0% | 5th most demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.5% | +6.8% | 5th lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +9.9 pp | -0.7 pp | 5th most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +3.9 pp | +1.5 pp | 8th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 19.1× | 11.5× | 4th most expensive of 15 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.7× | 2.1× | 4th least indebted of 16 |
| Bond spread | 62 bp | 81 bp | 2nd tightest of 11 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linde LIN | United States | $237B | +5% | +8% | 27% | 27.0× | 14.4% | +4.5% |
| Air Liquide AI.PA | France | $134B | +15% | -1% | 21% | 29.0× | 18.1% | +5.6% |
| Ecolab ECL | United States | $84.3B | +19% | +9% | 18% | 33.6× | 19.7% | +6.4% |
| 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% |
| Basf BAS.DE | Germany | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% | +0.2% |
| 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% |
| Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS | China | $17.5B | -25% | -8% | 8% | 9.2× | -8.0% | +5.1% |
| Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. Sponsored ADR Pfd Series B SQM | United States | $16.0B | -37% | +59% | 39% | 7.3× | -4.8% | +20.1% |
| Nippon Sanso 4091.T | Japan | $15.3B | +1% | +10% | 15% | 16.9× | 7.8% | +10.7% |
| Symrise SY1.DE | Germany | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 24.8× | 8.1% | +7.0% |
| Covestro 1COV.DE | Germany | $14.0B | 0% | -9% | -3% | 200.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Zhejiang Juhua 600160.SS | China | $13.1B | -12% | -5% | 20% | 18.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Lgchem 051910.KS | South Korea | $12.6B | -42% | 0% | 0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Resonac 4004.T | Japan | $12.6B | -26% | +1% | 8% | 18.0× | 26.7% | +6.7% |
| Satellite Chemical 002648.SZ | China | $12.4B | -17% | +20% | 23% | 7.2× | -13.2% | +33.8% |
Linde has 3 bonds outstanding with $1.68B face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like AA+. Weighted yield 5.56%, a spread of 62 bp over government bonds.
Linde reported $66.0B of remaining performance obligations at 30 Sep 2026, up 6% from a year earlier and up 3% from the previous quarter. That is 1.8 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.21.