Linde Reports Strong Earnings, Boosting Investor Confidence
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Jan 28 2026
0mins
Should l Buy LIN?
Source: Fool
Linde PLC's shares rose 3.00% and reached a 52-week high following the release of its quarterly earnings report.
The company reported quarterly revenue of $18.98 billion, exceeding analyst expectations, and earnings per share of $4.20, which also surpassed estimates. This strong performance reflects effective management and robust market demand, contributing to a positive outlook for Linde's future growth. Additionally, Morgan Stanley raised Linde's price target to $530, indicating confidence in the company's growth trajectory despite some challenges.
The strong earnings report and positive analyst outlook are likely to attract more investor interest, reinforcing Linde's position in the industrial gas sector and supporting its stock performance.
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Analyst Views on LIN
Wall Street analysts forecast LIN stock price to rise
17 Analyst Rating
15 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 482.220
Low
455.00
Averages
499.07
High
540.00
Current: 482.220
Low
455.00
Averages
499.07
High
540.00
About LIN
Linde plc is a United Kingdom-based industrial gases and engineering company. The Company serves a variety of end markets, such as chemicals and energy, food and beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing, metals, and mining. The Company’s industrial gases and technologies are used in countless applications, including production of clean hydrogen and carbon capture systems critical to the energy transition, life-saving medical oxygen and high-purity and specialty gases for electronics. It also delivers gas processing solutions to support customer expansion, efficiency improvements and emissions reductions. Its primary products in its industrial gases business are atmospheric gases and process gases. The Company also designs and builds equipment that produces industrial gases and offers customers a range of gas production and processing services, such as olefin plants, natural gas plants, air separation plants, hydrogen and synthesis gas plants and other types of plants.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Quarterly Revenue Growth: Linde reported quarterly revenue of $18.98 billion on January 30, reflecting a 10% year-over-year increase that surpassed the analyst consensus estimate of $18.92 billion, indicating strong performance in the industrial gas sector and boosting investor confidence.
- Earnings Beat Expectations: On February 5, Linde announced earnings per share of $4.20, exceeding the analyst consensus estimate of $4.18, demonstrating effective management in cost control and market demand, which further solidifies its market position.
- Strong Sales Figures: The company achieved quarterly sales of $8.764 billion, surpassing the analyst consensus estimate of $8.644 billion, reflecting Linde's competitiveness and growth potential in the global market, likely attracting more investor interest.
- Stock Performance: Linde's shares rose 1.1% to close at $472.86 on Thursday, indicating a positive market reaction to its financial performance, which may support future investment decisions.
See More
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- Market Dynamics: Wall Street experienced a decline on Thursday, particularly after the conclusion of the Morning Meeting, as the rotation from technology stocks to cyclicals continued, with industrials showing strong performance and driving portfolio results, indicating resilience in cyclical sectors.
- Stock Performance: Companies like Dupont, Dover, Honeywell, Linde, GE Vernova, and Eaton have shown extraordinary year-to-date performance, even as the S&P 500 has only seen slight gains, highlighting the significance of these cyclical stocks in the current market environment.
- Cisco Earnings Impact: Cisco's earnings report on Wednesday, despite a networking order growth exceeding 20%, saw shares drop over 10% on Thursday due to a dip in gross margins from rising memory prices, reflecting market concerns over its profitability.
- Apple Developments: Apple's shares fell more than 3% on Thursday, influenced by Cisco's warnings, and although iPhone sales remain strong, issues with the Siri upgrade testing and a delayed full launch could impact future market performance.
See More
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- Industrial Stock Rally: In 2026, industrial stocks like DuPont have shown remarkable performance, with DuPont up approximately 28% year-to-date, reflecting market confidence in industrial recovery; JPMorgan raised its price target from $50 to $57, indicating optimism about future growth.
- Cisco's Decline: Despite reporting strong quarterly results and raising its annual outlook, Cisco's stock fell about 7% in pre-market trading due to high memory prices squeezing gross margins, highlighting market concerns over its future profitability, prompting us to trim our position ahead of the report to mitigate risk.
- AI Market Funding: Anthropic is set to close a $20 billion funding round, valuing the company at $350 billion, which is crucial for the AI sector as it supports cloud providers' infrastructure investments, ensuring sustained compute demand that drives growth in related industries.
- Rising Power Demand: American Electric Power reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, having signed agreements for 28 GW of load capacity since October, bringing total energy commitments to 56 GW by 2030, demonstrating a strong response to high electricity demand, with over 10 GW of gas turbine capacity secured from major manufacturers like GE.
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