APD vs. LIN, VNTR, TROX, MTX, KRO, LXU, VHI, NL, LXFR, and HGAS
Should you be buying Air Products and Chemicals stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Air Products and Chemicals include Linde (LIN), Venator Materials (VNTR), Tronox (TROX), Minerals Technologies (MTX), Kronos Worldwide (KRO), LSB Industries (LXU), Valhi (VHI), NL Industries (NL), Luxfer (LXFR), and Global Gas (HGAS). These companies are all part of the "industrial inorganic chemicals" industry.
Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) and Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE:APD) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and community ranking.
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 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Air Products and Chemicals had 4 more articles in the media than Linde. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Air Products and Chemicals and 12 mentions for Linde. Air Products and Chemicals' average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat Linde's score of 0.81 indicating that Linde is being referred to more favorably in the media.
82.8% of Linde shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.7% of Air Products and Chemicals shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Linde shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Air Products and Chemicals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Linde currently has a consensus target price of $468.83, indicating a potential upside of 7.65%. Air Products and Chemicals has a consensus target price of $274.77, indicating a potential upside of 3.03%. Given Air Products and Chemicals' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Linde is more favorable than Air Products and Chemicals.
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 2.7%. Linde pays out 43.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Air Products and Chemicals pays out 63.9% 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. Linde has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Air Products and Chemicals has raised its dividend for 49 consecutive years. Air Products and Chemicals is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Air Products and Chemicals received 277 more outperform votes than Linde when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.20% of users gave Air Products and Chemicals an outperform vote while only 63.55% of users gave Linde an outperform vote.
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.
Air Products and Chemicals has a net margin of 20.32% compared to Air Products and Chemicals' net margin of 19.26%. Air Products and Chemicals' return on equity of 17.49% beat Linde's return on equity.
Summary
Linde beats Air Products and Chemicals on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding APD and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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