Linde vs. Air Products: the same gases, a 26% margin against two years of hydrogen write-downs

Linde and Air Products sell the same things — oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other industrial gases, delivered by pipeline, in bulk or in cylinders — but in the last two years they have looked very different. At the Oct 20, 2026 close, Linde was worth $231.4 billion and Air Products $67.4 billion. Linde had 65,177 employees at the end of 2025; Air Products about 21,300.

Revenue, and what the 2018 merger changes

Today’s Linde was created on October 31, 2018, when Praxair combined with Germany’s Linde AG. Praxair was the accounting acquirer, and each Praxair share became one Linde share, so the years before 2018 in Linde’s financial history and stock price are Praxair’s. Revenue jumped 90% in 2019, the first full year with Linde AG; that is the merger, not growth. From 2019, the two compare cleanly. Air Products’ fiscal year ends on September 30.

Linde’s operating margin rose from 16.1% in 2022, a year with $1.0 billion of charges for leaving Russia, to 26.3% in 2025. Its reported profit still carries the amortization from the Linde AG purchase — $941 million of operating profit in 2025 — so the company also gives adjusted figures without it. Linde bought back $28.8 billion of stock over the last ten years, cutting its diluted share count from 545 million in 2019 to 472 million in 2025. Air Products did not buy back shares in that period.

Air Products and green hydrogen

Air Products spent heavily on large clean-energy projects: its capital spending reached $7.0 billion in fiscal 2025, against $3.3 billion of cash from operations. In February 2025 a new chief executive took over, Eduardo Menezes, previously an executive vice president at Linde and Praxair; in the same fiscal year the company reimbursed the activist investor Mantle Ridge for the costs of its proxy contest, and the board and the new CEO reviewed the projects. In fiscal 2025 the company recorded about $3.7 billion of pre-tax charges to exit some of them and posted a loss.

On June 30, 2026 it announced it would also exit a planned low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia complex in Louisiana and a green hydrogen plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, with a pre-tax charge of up to $2.9 billion and cash costs it estimated at no more than $925 million. The company attributed the exits to “challenging commercial conditions, project-specific economic factors, and slower than expected development in certain markets, largely hydrogen for mobility.” Excluding the charges, its adjusted earnings per share rose 12% in the quarter, and it now expects capital spending of about $3.5 billion in fiscal 2026. Its NEOM green hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia continues.

Linde, by contrast, reports a record $8.1 billion backlog of contracted gas-supply projects under construction and a total project backlog of $11 billion. For 2026 it guides to adjusted earnings per share of $17.70 to $17.90; Air Products guides to $13.39 to $13.49 for its fiscal year. Because Air Products’ last twelve months show a GAAP loss, a regular P/E does not apply to it.

Dividends and $1,000

Air Products says 2026 is its 44th consecutive year of dividend increases, with a quarterly dividend of $1.81. Over the last ten years to September 30, 2026, $1,000 in Linde (Praxair before the merger) with dividends reinvested became $4,635, ahead of the S&P 500’s $4,131; in Air Products it became $2,554. Over twenty years the figures are $11,684, $8,234 and $7,380. Over the last twelve months, though, Air Products’ stock rose 19.0% and Linde’s 11.1%.

Who owns them, and who traded

Thirteen of the 38 managers this site tracks held Linde at the end of June, all with more than $1 million, and seven held Air Products. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine opened the largest Linde position, $809 million, while Renaissance Technologies sold almost all of its stake. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking was the largest Air Products holder, with 4.7 million shares worth $1.39 billion, after adding 15.5%.

Linde chief executive Sanjiv Lamba bought $1.0 million of stock in the market on December 8, 2025, the day Linde hit its lowest close of the last twelve months. Linde executives sold $12.9 million over the year; former chairman and chief executive Steve Angel filed notices to sell about $72.6 million, which, as a former director, he does not report on Form 4. At Air Products no insider bought; Mantle Ridge, whose founder Paul Hilal sits on the board, distributed 3.9 million shares to the investors in its funds, which is not a sale, and said it has no plans to sell. The filings do not say why anyone bought or sold.

The figures above come from the companies’ SEC filings and the 13F, Form 4 and Form 144 filings listed below. They describe what happened; they are not a forecast and not investment advice.