Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Competitors

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) and Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE:APD) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, community ranking, institutional ownership and dividends.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in LIN or APD?

82.8% of Linde shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.7% of Air Products and Chemicals shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Linde shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Air Products and Chemicals shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer LIN or APD?

Linde presently has a consensus target price of $495.75, suggesting a potential upside of 13.70%. Air Products and Chemicals has a consensus target price of $332.71, suggesting a potential upside of 4.92%. Given Linde's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Linde is more favorable than Air Products and Chemicals.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Linde	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.64
Air Products and Chemicals	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	13 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.68

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LIN or APD?

Air Products and Chemicals received 288 more outperform votes than Linde when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.59% of users gave Air Products and Chemicals an outperform vote while only 63.69% of users gave Linde an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Linde	Outperform Votes 356 63.69%	Underperform Votes 203 36.31%
Air Products and Chemicals	Outperform Votes 644 64.59%	Underperform Votes 353 35.41%

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, LIN or APD?

Linde has higher revenue and earnings than Air Products and Chemicals. Air Products and Chemicals is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Linde, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Linde	$33.03B	6.29	$6.20B	$13.17	33.11
Air Products and Chemicals	$12.10B	5.83	$3.83B	$17.18	18.46

Is LIN or APD a better dividend stock?

Linde pays an annual dividend of $5.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Air Products and Chemicals pays an annual dividend of $7.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Linde pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Air Products and Chemicals pays out 41.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Air Products and Chemicals is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is LIN or APD more profitable?

Air Products and Chemicals has a net margin of 31.64% compared to Linde's net margin of 19.33%. Linde's return on equity of 18.16% beat Air Products and Chemicals' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Linde	19.33%	18.16%	9.05%
Air Products and Chemicals	31.64%	16.34%	7.56%

Does the media prefer LIN or APD?

In the previous week, Air Products and Chemicals had 20 more articles in the media than Linde. MarketBeat recorded 53 mentions for Air Products and Chemicals and 33 mentions for Linde. Linde's average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Air Products and Chemicals' score of 0.80 indicating that Linde is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Linde	29 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Air Products and Chemicals	26 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	19 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, LIN or APD?

Linde has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Air Products and Chemicals has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Linde beats Air Products and Chemicals on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.