Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. APD
Weak Materials sector · Air Products — industrial gases with a big bet on clean-hydrogen mega-projects.
🗓 Reports earnings in 30 days (2026-11-05) — calendar context, not a prediction.
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APD) is an established Materials company, graded Weak on FrontierLab's evidence-based quality rubric (data as of 2026-10-05). Revenue grew 4.5% year-over-year at a 32.1% gross margin. Gross-profits-to-assets is 0.1; Rule of 40 is -0.2. Net share issuance 0% YoY (flat share count). 1 risk flag is noted below. Analyst mix: 18 buy / 9 hold / 0 sell. Track record: 35% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 63 sessions (95% CI 18–57%, N=20). Median excess vs the S&P was -13%.
These sentences are generated from the day's data by deterministic templates.
Key quality signals
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 4.5% |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 32.1% |
| Gross profits / assets | 0.1 |
| Rule of 40 | -0.2 |
| Net margin | -4.7% |
| Cash runway (months) | — |
| PEG | — |
| Price / sales | 4.9 |
Quality checklist
Each line is one quality test behind the grade — ✓ passed · ~ borderline · ✗ failed. Hover a metric in the tables below for what it means.
- ✗ Revenue growth — 4.5% (pass ≥ 20%)
- ✗ Gross profits / assets — 0.1 (pass ≥ 0.33)
- · Rule of 40 — -0.2 (context — graded for software only)
- ✓ Gross margin — 32.1% (pass ≥ 25% · Materials)
- ✓ Cash generation
- ✓ Share dilution — 0%
- ✓ Competitive moat — Wide
- ✓ Market size (TAM) — Large
Grade history
Graded Weak since 2026-06-17 — no grade changes recorded yet.
How have Weak-graded names performed?
The forward returns of all Weak-graded names since each grade was recorded — the bucket this name currently sits in, not a forecast of this individual stock.
| Window | Forward record vs the S&P | Median |
|---|---|---|
| ~1 month | 32% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 21 sessions (95% CI 15–54%, N=19). | Median excess vs the S&P was -3%. |
| ~3 months | 35% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 63 sessions (95% CI 18–57%, N=20). | Median excess vs the S&P was -13%. |
| ~6 months | building — 46 more sessions needed | |
How have this name's flags scored?
| Flag | N | Mean excess vs S&P |
|---|---|---|
| Burning cash — operating margin is negative. | 36 | -6.5% |
These per-flag figures are observational — a flag firing is not a randomized assignment, so any edge can reflect what kind of names trip a flag, not the flag itself. Descriptive, not causal.
Scope: these are forward returns vs the S&P among names still covered at each horizon's end, within the curated universe — not a survivorship-clean whole-market backtest. Names later dropped from coverage are counted as attrition (not hidden), and single-session moves beyond ±300% are treated as split/data artifacts and excluded. How this is measured → · Full track record →
How it compares
Coarse same-sector, same-stage context — not a percentile or rank. GP/A is graded on its absolute level, not position.
Fundamentals
| Market cap | $61.81B |
|---|---|
| Stage | Established |
| Share issuance (YoY) | 0% · flat share count |
| Moat | Wide |
| TAM | LARGE |
| P/E (trailing) | — |
| EPS (trailing) | $-0.21 |
| Burn multiple | — |
| Gross-margin trend (pts) | 0.2 |
| Cash / assets | 0.02 |
| Accruals (%) | -11.2% |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 13.2 |
| Statements as of | Q3 FY2026 · filed 2026-07-30 |
Momentum context — describes the past, not a signal
Low reached Dec 9, 2025 · high reached Jul 2, 2026 — by daily close.
| Price | $277.57 (as of 2026-10-02) |
|---|---|
| Last session move | — |
| % off 52-wk high | -11.8% |
| RSI (14) | 37 |
| Relative volume | 0.8× |
Risk flags
Analyst mix
| Strong buy | 5 |
|---|---|
| Buy | 13 |
| Hold | 9 |
| Sell | 0 |
| Strong sell | 0 |
Ratings are context, not a price target. "Momentum" = how the mix changed over recent weeks, not a forecast.
From the headlines
APD gains on growth projects and productivity despite helium pricing headwinds.
- Is Air Products (APD) Balancing Its Rich Dividend With Capital‑Heavy Growth Plans?
- APD Gains on Growth Project and Productivity Amid Helium Pricing Woes
- Is Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Outperforming Other Basic Materials Stocks This Year?
AI take — daily, AI-generated
AI leans cautious
Air Products' 4.5% growth is sluggish even with productivity gains offsetting helium headwinds, and the low GP/A ratio signals capital isn't working hard enough to justify current valuation.
Generated by an AI model from the day's news — an opinion for context only. Not financial advice, not a recommendation, and not a price target.
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Data as of 2026-10-05 08:19 (end-of-day). How grades are computed →