Linde plc LIN
Weak Materials sector · Linde — the largest industrial-gas supplier; long-term take-or-pay contracts and a clean-hydrogen option.
Linde plc (LIN) is an established Materials company, graded Weak on FrontierLab's evidence-based quality rubric (data as of 2026-08-21). Revenue grew 6.6% year-over-year at a 45.6% gross margin. Gross-profits-to-assets is 0.18; Rule of 40 is 35.3. Net share issuance -1.9% YoY (flat share count). No risk flags are currently noted. Analyst mix: 22 buy / 6 hold / 2 sell.
These sentences are generated from the day's data by deterministic templates.
Key quality signals
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 6.6% |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 45.6% |
| Gross profits / assets | 0.18 |
| Rule of 40 | 35.3 |
| Net margin | 28.7% |
| Cash runway (months) | — |
| PEG | 3.1 |
| Price / sales | 6.3 |
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 — 6.6% (pass ≥ 20%)
- ✗ Gross profits / assets — 0.18 (pass ≥ 0.33)
- · Rule of 40 — 35.3 (context — graded for software only)
- ✓ Gross margin — 45.6% (pass ≥ 25% · Materials)
- ✓ Cash generation
- ✓ Share dilution — -1.9%
- ✓ 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 | 60% of Weak-graded names beat the S&P over 21 sessions (95% CI 39–78%, N=20). | Median excess vs the S&P was +0.6%. |
| ~3 months | building — 13 more sessions needed | |
| ~6 months | building — 76 more sessions needed | |
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 | $222.64B |
|---|---|
| Stage | Established |
| Share issuance (YoY) | -1.9% · flat share count |
| Moat | Wide |
| TAM | LARGE |
| P/E (trailing) | 31.1 |
| EPS (trailing) | $15.48 |
| Burn multiple | — |
| Gross-margin trend (pts) | 5.5 |
| Cash / assets | 0.06 |
| Accruals (%) | -3.7% |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.7 |
| Statements as of | Q2 FY2026 · filed 2026-07-31 |
Momentum context — describes the past, not a signal
Low reached Dec 8, 2025 · high reached Jul 2, 2026 — by daily close.
| Price | $481.29 (as of 2026-08-20) |
|---|---|
| Last session move | — |
| % off 52-wk high | -12.2% |
| RSI (14) | 40 |
| Relative volume | 0.8× |
Analyst mix
| Strong buy | 5 |
|---|---|
| Buy | 17 |
| Hold | 6 |
| Sell | 2 |
| Strong sell | 0 |
▼ Analyst view softening — net -1 buy rating, coverage 29→30 analysts over ~4 weeks (per aggregated analyst ratings)
Ratings are context, not a price target. "Momentum" = how the mix changed over recent weeks, not a forecast.
From the headlines
Industrial gas major mentioned in hydrogen market forecasts; pure plays outperforming sector.
AI take — daily, AI-generated
AI leans mixed
Industrial gas leader with modest 6.6% growth and a stretched 3.1 PEG ratio; hydrogen tailwinds are real but pure-play competitors are outperforming, suggesting LIN's size may be a drag.
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 2026-08-21 08:12 (end-of-day). How grades are computed →