Linde
Linde's revenue rose 3.0% to $34.0 billion in fiscal 2025. Its operating margin was 26.2%, up from 26.2% a year earlier. Free cash flow was $5.1 billion, up 3.3%. It paid out $7.4 billion in dividends and buybacks, 146% of free cash flow. The diluted share count fell 2.0%.
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital spending. Return on capital is after-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash. Market cap is the last closing share price times the latest diluted share count, so it is approximate. P/E is the last close divided by diluted earnings per share over the last four quarters, or the latest fiscal year where the quarters aren't available; there is none when the company made a loss.
What Linde does
Linde makes and sells industrial gases and the equipment and services that go with them. It says it is the largest industrial gas company worldwide. Its main products are the gases in air (oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases) and process gases such as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. Customers are in health care, chemicals and energy, manufacturing, metals and mining, food and beverage, and electronics. Linde is an Irish company with principal offices in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Linde delivers gases in three ways. On-site supply sends gas by pipeline from a plant next to a large customer. Merchant supply delivers liquid gas in bulk, usually under three- to seven-year contracts. Packaged supply fills metal cylinders for customers who need small amounts. The company picks the method that meets a customer's needs at the lowest cost.
Linde also has an engineering business that designs and builds plants for air separation, hydrogen, synthesis gas, olefins and natural gas. Its sales were $33,986 million in 2025, and approximately 64% of them were outside the United States. At the end of 2025 it had 65,177 employees worldwide.
Its biggest risks, as it describes them
- Weaker economic conditions in the markets where it sells.
- Higher energy and raw material costs, or disrupted supply of them, which could cost it sales.
- Currency swings, since most of its sales are outside the United States.
- Impairment of goodwill or intangible assets, which would hit its reported results.
- Catastrophic events that disrupt its plants or those of its customers and suppliers.
Charts show fiscal years, from the 10-K filings.
Revenue and margins
Net income and earnings per share
From fiscal 2016 to 2025, earnings per share grew 12.1% a year and net income 18.5% a year, as new shares raised the share count by 64% and diluted each share's earnings.
Returns on capital
Cash flow
Payouts and share count
Valuation
Two ways to value Linde yourself, both starting from its filings: a discounted cash flow model and the price-to-earnings method.
Discounted cash flow (DCF)
A discounted cash flow (DCF) model values a business as the cash it may generate in future, discounted back to today. The starting figures come from Linde's 10-K (or, for net cash and shares, its latest 10-Q) and the assumptions are yours: start from one of three example scenarios, then change any figure to see what it implies for a share, and how that compares with the last share price.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Linde's fiscal 2025 free cash flow of $5.1B, net cash of −$22.1B at December 31, 2025 and 472 million diluted shares, from its filings. The scenarios are fitted to Linde: the base scenario's growth in years 1 to 5 is its revenue growth over the last 3 years, 0.6% a year; the cautious and optimistic ones are lower and higher, and growth in years 6 to 10 is halfway to the long-run rate. The base scenario's discount rate is 11% for a cyclical or higher-risk business (Industrial Gases); the cautious and optimistic ones use a point more and a point less. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $507.56
- Value on these assumptions, against the last close
- —
- Cash flows in years 1 to 10, valued today
- —
- Everything after year 10, valued today
- —
- Plus net cash
- —
- Share of value from after year 10
How the value changes with two assumptions
Price-to-earnings (P/E) method
Another common way to value a company is to multiply its earnings per share by a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple: the number of years of today's earnings an investor pays for a share. A higher multiple usually means investors expect earnings to grow. Choose a multiple, for example from similar companies, to see the value it gives.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Linde's earnings per share of $15.49 (over the last four quarters). Each grows earnings for a year at the cash flow scenarios' rates and applies a multiple to next year's earnings: 20.5×, the middle of Linde's own P/E today, its peers' median and its sector's median (its peers' median) for the base scenario, 20% less and more for the cautious and optimistic ones. The price is brought back a year at 12%, 11% and 10%. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $507.56
- Value at this multiple, against the last close
- —
- Linde's P/E at the last close
- 32.8×
| Company | Last close | Earnings per share | P/E today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smurfit WestrockSW | $42.24 | $0.95 | 44.5× |
| LindeLIN | $507.56 | $15.49 | 32.8× |
| NucorNUE | $257.35 | $12.54 | 20.5× |
| CRHCRH | $85.43 | $5.67 | 15.1× |
Balance sheet
| Fiscal year end | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and short-term investments | 2.8 | 5.4 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 5.1 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 14.4 | 18.1 | 19.6 | 21.8 | 27.2 |
| Net debt (negative means net cash) | 11.6 | 12.6 | 14.9 | 17.0 | 22.1 |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 1.2x | 1.3x | 1.3x | 1.4x | 1.8x |
| Debt to equity | 0.3x | 0.5x | 0.5x | 0.6x | 0.7x |
| Interest coverage | 22.0x | 85.2x | 40.1x | 33.7x | 35.0x |
| Current ratio | 0.7x | 0.8x | 0.8x | 0.9x | 0.9x |
| Quick ratio | 0.6x | 0.7x | 0.7x | 0.8x | 0.7x |
Insider trades
Over the 12 months between October 27, 2025 and October 26, 2026, 2 insiders bought $1.0 million of Linde shares on the open market, and 4 insiders sold $12.9 million, $2.1 million of it under trading plans set up in advance.
| Date | Insider | Trade | Shares | Price | Value | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 2026 | Paula Rosput ReynoldsDirector | Bought | 100 | $479.12 | $47,912 | Form 4 |
| May 15, 2026 | Robert L WoodDirector | Sold | 4,335 | $506.39 | $2.2 million | Form 4 |
| May 14, 2026 | Robert L WoodDirector | Sold | 880 | $508.76 | $447,709 | Form 4 |
| Mar 10, 2026 | Sean DurbinEVP, Chief Operating Officer | Sold | 6,520 | $477.27 | $3.1 million | Form 4 |
| Mar 10, 2026 | Guillermo BicharaExec VP & Chief Legal Officer | Sold plan | 4,357 | $480.79 | $2.1 million | Form 4 |
| Feb 24, 2026 | Binod PatwariSenior Vice President - APAC | Sold | 999 | $502.77 | $502,267 | Form 4 |
| Feb 17, 2026 | Guillermo BicharaExec VP & Chief Legal Officer | Sold | 9,455 | $480.45 | $4.5 million | Form 4 |
| Dec 8, 2025 | Sanjiv LambaChief Executive Officer, Director | Bought | 2,520 | $396.68 | $999,634 | Form 4 |
Piotroski F-score
The F-score counts how many of nine simple tests of profitability, funding and efficiency a company passed in a year (Piotroski, 2000). The more tests passed, the stronger the year: 8 or 9 is strong, 0 to 2 weak. Companies that report no gross profit are scored on the other eight.
| Test | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Cash from operations is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Return on assets rose | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Cash from operations exceeds net income | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Debt fell relative to assets | Fail | Fail | Fail |
| Current ratio rose | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Share count didn't rise | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Gross margin rose | — | — | — |
| Revenue rose relative to assets | Pass | Fail | Pass |
| F-score | 7 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 6 of 8 |
| Accruals ratio | −3.9% | −3.5% | −4.1% |
Compare
Put Linde side by side with any other company we cover: revenue, growth, margins, cash flow and returns, with ten years of charts.
Similar companies
| Company | Year | Revenue growth | Operating margin | Free cash flow margin | Return on capital | Net debt to EBITDA | F-score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linde | FY25 | 3.0% | 26.2% | 15.0% | 11.7% | 1.8x | 6 | |
| Air Products | FY25 | −0.5% | −7.3% | −31.3% | −2.2% | 23.1x | 3 | Compare |
| Nucor | FY25 | 5.7% | — | −0.6% | 8.6% | 1.0x | 6 | Compare |
| Smurfit Westrock | FY25 | 47.7% | 5.5% | 3.9% | 4.1% | 3.0x | 5 | Compare |
| CRH | FY25 | 5.3% | 14.5% | 7.8% | 11.8% | 1.9x | 7 | Compare |
10 years of figures
| Fiscal year | FY16 | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| Revenue | 10.5 | 11.4 | 14.8 | 28.2 | 27.2 | 30.8 | 33.4 | 32.9 | 33.0 | 34.0 |
| Revenue growth | — | 7.8% | 30.6% | 90.3% | −3.5% | 13.0% | 8.3% | −1.5% | 0.5% | 3.0% |
| Gross profit | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Research and development | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Operating income | 2.2 | 2.4 | 5.2 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 8.9 |
| Net income | 1.5 | 1.2 | 4.4 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 3.8 | 4.1 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 6.9 |
| Diluted EPS (US$) | 5.21 | 4.32 | 13.11 | 4.19 | 4.71 | 7.33 | 8.23 | 12.59 | 13.62 | 14.61 |
| Diluted shares (millions) | 288 | 289 | 334 | 545 | 531 | 522 | 504 | 492 | 482 | 472 |
| Cash flow | ||||||||||
| Cash from operations | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 6.1 | 7.4 | 9.7 | 8.9 | 9.3 | 9.4 | 10.3 |
| Capital expenditure | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 5.3 |
| Free cash flow | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 4.0 | 6.6 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 4.9 | 5.1 |
| Dividends paid | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.8 |
| Share buybacks | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 4.6 | 5.2 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| Acquisitions | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Stock-based compensation | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Balance sheet at fiscal year end | ||||||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | 0.5 | 0.6 | 4.5 | 2.7 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 5.4 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 5.1 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | — | 9.0 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 16.3 | 14.4 | 18.1 | 19.6 | 21.8 | 27.2 |
| Total assets | — | 20.4 | 93.4 | 86.6 | 88.2 | 81.6 | 79.7 | 80.8 | 80.1 | 86.8 |
| Total liabilities | — | 13.9 | 36.3 | 35.0 | 38.6 | 36.2 | 38.3 | 39.7 | 40.7 | 47.1 |
| Shareholders' equity | 5.4 | 6.0 | 51.6 | 49.1 | 47.3 | 44.0 | 40.0 | 39.7 | 38.1 | 38.2 |
| Margins and ratios | ||||||||||
| Gross margin | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Operating margin | 21.3% | 21.5% | 35.4% | 10.4% | 12.2% | 16.2% | 16.1% | 24.4% | 26.2% | 26.2% |
| Net margin | 14.2% | 11.0% | 29.5% | 8.1% | 9.2% | 12.4% | 12.4% | 18.9% | 19.9% | 20.3% |
| Free cash flow margin | 12.6% | 15.2% | 11.9% | 8.6% | 14.8% | 21.6% | 17.1% | 16.8% | 14.9% | 15.0% |
| Return on capital | — | — | 10.6% | 3.3% | 4.0% | 6.3% | 7.2% | 11.3% | 11.8% | 11.7% |
| Return on equity | — | — | 15.2% | 4.5% | 5.2% | 8.4% | 9.9% | 15.6% | 16.9% | 18.1% |
| Return on assets | — | — | 7.7% | 2.5% | 2.9% | 4.5% | 5.1% | 7.7% | 8.2% | 8.3% |
| Net debt to EBITDA | — | 2.3x | 1.5x | 1.5x | 1.6x | 1.2x | 1.3x | 1.3x | 1.4x | 1.8x |