Reviewing Linde (LIN) & Its Competitors

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) is one of 296 publicly-traded companies in the “Chemicals” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Linde to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Linde and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Linde	0	2	21	1	2.96
Linde Competitors	3272	12240	14151	521	2.39

Linde presently has a consensus price target of $553.05, indicating a potential upside of 5.59%. As a group, “Chemicals” companies have a potential upside of 8.03%. Given Linde’s rivals higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Linde has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Profitability

This table compares Linde and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Linde	19.34%	20.32%	9.38%
Linde Competitors	-54.14%	-0.61%	-1.37%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Linde and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Linde	$33.99 billion	$6.90 billion	34.80
Linde Competitors	$6.34 billion	$229.42 million	19.73

Linde has higher revenue and earnings than its rivals. Linde is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

Linde has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Linde’s rivals have a beta of 0.94, indicating that their average share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Linde pays an annual dividend of $6.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde pays out 42.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Chemicals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 104.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Linde has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Linde shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.4% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Linde shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.7% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Linde beats its rivals on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases. Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.