Shares of industrial gas giant Linde dropped Friday despite reporting better-than-expected profits and sales. Linde remains a quiet beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom, but problems facing part of its healthcare business are drowning out those benefits in the final trading session of the week. Our faith in Linde is unshaken, so Friday’s pullback looks more like a buying opportunity than a reason to head for the exits. Revenue in the second quarter ended June 30 rose 9.3% to $9.29 billion, surpassing the $8.99 billion consensus, according to LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) totaled $4.50, beating the LSEG consensus by 2 cents and rising 10% year over year. LIN YTD mountain Linde’s year-to-date stock performance. Linde shares slid more than 5.5% Friday, on pace for its worst day since the market’s tariff sell-off in April 2025. The stock entered Friday’s session down about 7% from its record close of $546.64 on July 2. Despite its recent pullback, Linde is still up 19% year to date, outperforming both the S & P 500′ s 8.7% gain and a 14% advance for the index’s materials sector . Bottom line This isn’t the cleanest quarter that Linde has reported in our five years owning the stock. But it’s plenty good enough to keep us invested and singing the company’s praises as a reliable operator with consistent earnings growth in any economic environment. We certainly won’t fight anyone who wants to sell the stock and give other investors a better price. “You buy the stock” on this decline, Jim Cramer said on CNBC on Friday. “It’s one of the greatest stories of our time. It is.” Linde can deliver sales growth without selling more gases thanks to price increases and a more attractive mix of products sold. The best thing is when both price/mix and volumes are improving, which is what we saw in the second quarter. Volume and price/mix were both up 2% in the June quarter. In the prior two quarters, volume was up 1% while price/mix grew 2%. So, volume growth is accelerating — a good sign. Why we own it The industrial gas supplier and engineering firm has a stellar track record of consistent earnings growth. Its exposure to a wide range of industries, such as health care and electronics, and geographies — paired with excellent executive leadership and disciplined capital management — has been a recipe for steady success that should continue. Competitors: Air Liquide and Air Products and Chemicals Most recent buy : Dec. 18, 2024 Initiated : Feb. 18, 2021 A clear bright spot and driver of volume growth in the quarter was Linde’s electronics business, which grew sales 18% year over year thanks to booming semiconductor manufacturing amid the AI buildout. That’s the fastest growth rate for Linde’s electronics end market since the fourth quarter of 2022, when the company benefited from a few new semiconductor fabrication plants coming online. The highly complex process of chip manufacturing requires a variety of gases, including nitrogen and…
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