About Linde plc
Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company worldwide. The company offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene. It also engages in the design and construction of turnkey process plants for third-party customers, as well as for its gas businesses, including air separation, hydrogen, synthesis, olefin, and natural gas plants. The company serves the healthcare, chemicals and energy, manufacturing, metals and mining, food and beverage, and electronics industries. It operates in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, China, Australia, South Korea, and India. Linde plc was founded in 1879 and is based in Woking, the United Kingdom.
Linde plc (LIN) is a Basic Materials company in the Specialty Chemicals industry with a market capitalisation of $212.2B. The stock trades at 29.66x trailing earnings and yields 1.39%.
- Sector
- Basic Materials
- Industry
- Specialty Chemicals
- Market cap
- $212.2B
- P/E ratio
- 29.66
- Forward P/E
- 23.54
- EPS (TTM)
- $15.52
- Revenue (TTM)
- $35.4B
- Free cash flow
- $4.2B
- Profit margin
- 20.4%
- Dividend yield
- 1.39%
- Beta
- 0.73
- Shares outstanding
- 461M
Financial health: Fair7.3/10
6 strengths, 1 concern. Weakest points: current ratio.
- Debt to equity: 0.71 (Watch, benchmark < 0.5) — Debt of 0.71x equity is moderate against the 0.5x benchmark. It has deteriorated over the last 4 years.
- Net debt vs cash flow: 4.3y (Watch, benchmark < 4 years) — Net debt of $21.9B is 4.3x annual free cash flow — about 4 years of cash flow to repay.
- Current ratio: 0.88 (Concern, benchmark > 1.5) — Short-term assets cover only 0.88x short-term liabilities — below 1.0, meaning bills due this year exceed the assets on hand to pay them. It has improved over the last 4 years.
- Return on equity: 18.4% (Strong, benchmark > 15%) — Earns 18.4% on shareholder equity, comfortably past the > 15% mark.
- Gross margin: 48.4% (Strong, benchmark > 40%) — Keeps 48.4% of revenue after the direct cost of sales, comfortably past the > 40% mark.
- Net margin: 20.4% (Strong, benchmark > 10%) — Turns 20.4% of revenue into profit, comfortably past the > 10% mark.
- Free cash flow: $5.1B (Strong, benchmark positive) — Generated $5.1B of free cash flow after capital spending. It has deteriorated over the last 4 years.
- Revenue growth: 9.3% (Watch, benchmark > 10%) — Revenue changed 9.3% year on year, short of the > 10% mark.
- Earnings growth: 11.3% (Strong, benchmark > 10%) — Earnings changed 11.3% year on year, comfortably past the > 10% mark.
- PEG ratio: 1.78 (Watch, benchmark < 1) — At 1.78, the price looks fair relative to expected growth — Lynch treated 1.0 as fair value.
- Payout ratio: 40.0% (Strong, benchmark < 60%) — Pays out 40.0% of earnings as dividends, leaving room to keep paying.