Buffett Brain · Research note
Score updated 29 Oct 2026 · analysis from 2 Jun 2026
LIN· Materials
Linde
Linde is a wonderful, durable gases business priced like a fad, at a 32.7 P/E and a thin 2.2 percent owner-earnings yield.
Buffett fit
Partial fit
Owner
47
Durability
87
Management
52
Price
10
Score updated 29 Oct 2026 · analysis from 2 Jun 2026
Buffett's checklist
Each number against Buffett's bar, and where it ranks among Materials stocks in our database.
How much profit the business makes on each dollar invested in it. Higher is better.
What is left of each sale after the cost of making the product. A high number often means pricing power.
The cash the business earns for its owners, compared with the price of the whole company.
How fast sales grew each year over the last five years.
How many years of today's profit you pay for at today's price. Lower means cheaper.
How much the company owes compared with what it owns outright. Lower is safer.
The four pillars
How the business measures up on each of Buffett's four tests.
If I owned all of Linde, I would be pleased with the operations and unhappy with the entry price.
The full reasoning comes with a free account.
This is the strongest part of the case, and the durability score of 87 reflects it.
The full reasoning comes with a free account.
Management has shrunk the share count by about 2.5 percent a year and pushed earnings per share up 18.7 percent against 2.5 percent revenue growth, so the and pricing have done real work.
The full reasoning comes with a free account.
There is none, and the valuation score of 10 says so plainly. A 32.7 and a 28.3 EV/ on a business growing revenue at 2.5 percent is a price that already counts on many years of flawless execution.
The full reasoning comes with a free account.
Free account
Read the full Linde analysis free
- The full reasoning behind all four pillars
- Graham, Lynch and Greenblatt on the same stock
3 full analyses a week · no card needed
For and against
The strongest points on each side, with the numbers behind them.
In its favor
6- 1 of 28.8 percent and of 46 percent show real baked into long-term contracts.
- 2Durability score of 87 with a maximum historical earnings decline of zero, a remarkably steady earner.
- 3Earnings per share compounded 18.7 percent while revenue grew only 2.5 percent, evidence of pricing and efficiency, not just volume.
- 4Interest coverage of 36 times and net debt at 1.68 times EBITDA mean the balance sheet is in no danger.
Concerns
6- 1Valuation is the whole problem: a 32.7 and 28.3 EV/ leave no and price in years of perfect execution.
- 2Owner-earnings yield of just 2.2 percent is below the risk-free Treasury rate, so you are paid little to take equity risk.
- 3Revenue grew only 2.5 percent a year, so most of the earnings growth must keep coming from price and , which cannot run forever.
- 4 score of 47 is only middling, and at 74 percent of net income shows heavy reinvestment needs.
Price history
$508+59.2%· 5-year return
Weekly closing prices. Touch or hover the line for a date.
The business
How the business works
Linde makes its money selling oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other industrial gases, much of it under take-or-pay contracts that run ten to fifteen years and pass energy costs through to the customer. That contract book shows up in the numbers as a 46 percent and a 28.8 percent , and earnings per share have compounded near 18.7 percent while revenue grew only 2.5 percent. The gap between those two numbers is the story: this is a pricing and efficiency machine, not a volume machine.
How this analysis has moved
The call has held across 6 reviews.
Sep 27, 2026 → Oct 29, 2026
What other investors would say
The same company, judged by three other documented playbooks.
Keep researching
Similar companies in Materials
Free weekly email
Liked the read on LIN? Get the next ones on Monday.
Every Monday: the stocks most of the seven investors newly agree on. One email, unsubscribe any time.
Research, not investment advice.
See the Buffett analysis of Linde
The score, the checklist and the full reasoning open with a free account. You get 3 full analyses a week, and this stock is the first one. No card needed.
Create a free account3 full analyses a week · no card needed
Already have an account? Sign in