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Here's How Much You'd Have If You Invested $1000 in Linde a Decade Ago

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Linde (LIN - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to LIN for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Linde's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Linde's main business drivers.

Linde plc, incorporated in Ireland, is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company. The company serves chemicals and energy, food and beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and mining and other industrial markets. Linde generated 2025 sales of $34 billion.

With a wide range of applications for its industrial gases, the company helps customers improve productivity, reliability and efficiency. Its primary products include oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. Oxygen is used for life support in hospitals and for industrial processes. Hydrogen is used in refining, clean fuels and other process applications. High-purity and specialty gases are used in semiconductor and electronics manufacturing.

Linde also provides equipment, services and technologies that support gas processing and industrial project execution. Its engineering capabilities help customers build plants and improve operating efficiency. The company’s gases and technologies also support carbon capture, clean hydrogen production, space exploration and launch technologies, emissions reduction and other customer sustainability needs.

In October 2018, Praxair and Linde AG completed their business combination. The combination brought together Linde AG’s engineering and technology capabilities with Praxair’s operating discipline. It created a larger and more diversified industrial gas leader with exposure to long-term macro growth trends.

At the end of the third quarter of 2026, the company had a $10.8 billion high-quality project backlog. Of this amount, $7.9 billion represented Sale of Gas projects supported by long-term supply agreements. The remaining $2.9 billion represented Sale of Plant engineering contracts. 

In the third quarter of 2026, Linde reported results across Americas, EMEA, APAC, Engineering and Global Other. The company moved its U.S. homecare business, Lincare, from Americas to Global Other effective in the quarter. Excluding Engineering sales, the company's end-market mix included chemicals and energy, manufacturing, healthcare, metals and mining, electronics, and food and beverages.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Linde, ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in November 2016 would be worth $4,433.52, or a gain of 343.35%, as of November 13, 2026, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

In comparison, the S&P 500's gained 250.78% and the price of gold went up 203.07% over the same time frame.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for LIN.

Linde's long-term contracts and diversified industrial gas markets provide recurring cash flow amid uneven demand. Electronics benefits from semiconductor investment, while a sizable project backlog supports future growth. Pricing, productivity and restructuring offer scope for earnings gains. Demand from select U.S. and Asian customers also supports the core gases business. However, European industrial activity remains subdued, and China's weak domestic consumption could restrain demand from metals, chemicals and manufacturing customers despite healthy growth among Linde's Tier 1 accounts. Lincare continues to dilute profitability, while equipment mix and helium costs weigh on Asia-Pacific margins. The Neutral view balances contracted growth and execution opportunities against uneven demand and margin recovery risks

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 5.93%, and there have been 7 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2026 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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