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Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) is the world’s largest industrial gas company. Everybody knows heating gas, but nobody thinks about industrial gas. Yet, every single AI chip made in America requires Linde’s ultra-high-purity nitrogen to exist. No gas, no chips. No chips, no AI.
Linde builds production plants directly on-site at its biggest customers’ facilities next to chip fabs, oil refineries, and steel mills. Its customers sign 10-to-20-year contracts that include minimum volume commitments. Once that plant is built, it is not going anywhere.
And because industrial gases are heavy and expensive to transport, Linde has geographic moats around each of its production hubs. A competitor can’t just roll into Arizona and undercut Linde’s local pipeline network. Too hard, too costly, and simply too late.
The stock has already moved 3% higher while the S&P 500 has been gyrating wildly. Nice!
And the best part? Linde is still a great buy at today’s price!
The run is likely to continue. Linde just announced its 33rd consecutive annual dividend increase—a 7% raise year over year. The company has more than doubled its dividend over the past decade. And its payout ratio sits at a historically low 41%, which means the next raise has room to accelerate.
This Doubling Dividend is About to Speed Up
Remember the dividend magnet? When a company like Linde hikes its payout year after year, the stock price follows like a magnet pulling iron filings. Linde’s dividend is marching higher. The stock price will follow. It always does.
Plus, Intel, TSMC, and Samsung are all building new semiconductor fabs in Arizona and Texas today. We’re talking billions of dollars of construction—all requiring Linde’s gases every single day for decades. This is recurring revenue locked in by long-term contracts.
And the big number is the clean energy project backlog: $10 billion. Yes, despite Washington battles, clean projects are still happening and they require Linde’s specialty gases.
Management expects $2.5 to $3 billion of these projects to start generating revenue in 2026 alone. Linde’s 2026 guidance reflects this, expecting 6% to 9% EPS growth:
Linde’s EPS Growth, Already Strong, About to Hockeystick Higher
There are only three companies on the planet that can supply industrial gases at this scale, but Linde is the biggest and most profitable:
Linde Leads the Industrial Gas Oligopoly in Profitability
Linde is already profitable for us.
Disclosure: Brett Owens and Michael Foster are contrarian income investors who look for undervalued stocks/funds across the U.S. markets. Click here to learn how to profit from their strategies in the latest report, "7 Great Dividend Growth Stocks for a Secure Retirement."