New York, Feb 9, 2026, 19:40 EST — After-hours
Linde plc (LIN) climbed roughly 1.8% to finish Monday at $456.34, with shares moving within a range of $444.07 to $457.49 during the day. After the closing bell, the stock barely budged.
Linde’s shift is catching attention—investors tend to use the company as a proxy for factory demand, since it supplies industrial gases on long-term deals to customers in chemicals, manufacturing, and healthcare.
This week is loaded with U.S. macro releases, the kind that can swing bond yields and hit valuations for steady-growth industrials. For Linde, headlines rarely move the needle—what counts is whether investors sense a shift in the economic cycle.
Monday’s broker calls skewed toward the positive, but not all in agreement. BMO Capital Markets bumped its price target up to $507 from $501, maintaining an “outperform” rating. Redburn took a more bullish stance, hiking its target to $550 from $530 and sticking with buy. On the flip side, DZ Bank took a step back, downgrading to neutral. 1
Broader market gains gave a boost, with the S&P 500 finishing up 0.47%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked higher too. Shares of Air Products, an industrial gas rival, climbed 1.15% during the session, MarketWatch data showed. 2
Last week’s numbers are still weighing on the stock. In its Feb. 5 release, Linde projected 2026 adjusted diluted earnings per share—excluding some one-time items—of $17.40 to $17.90, and put 2026 capital expenditures in a $5.0 billion to $5.5 billion range. Chief Executive Sanjiv Lamba pegged “operating profit, cash flow and backlog” each above $10 billion. 3
During the call, executives highlighted a record-high project backlog and a robust pipeline linked to clean energy and electronics. “Our project backlog stands at a record $10 billion,” Lamba said. He noted that roughly two-thirds of that figure is tied to contracted clean-energy projects. 4
Still, that buffer can only stretch so far. A stumble in customer run-rates, holdups with kicking off new projects, or a steeper slide in heavy industry could squeeze volumes and margins. Factor in another jump in interest rates and investors turning choosy on price, and things get tighter.
Eyes are now turning to the U.S. data slate. The January jobs report lands Feb. 11, according to the Labor Department’s schedule, with the January CPI numbers out just two days later, on Feb. 13. 5
Linde’s got a company event coming up: the firm is scheduled for Citi’s 2026 Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference on Feb. 17, according to its investor page. Investors will be watching for any word on backlog conversion, clean-energy orders, and capital returns. 6
