Linde grew Q2 2026 sales 9% to $9.29B and diluted EPS 11% to $4.15, with pricing, productivity and buybacks doing most of the work while volumes rose only 2% and EMEA volumes fell.
Revenue
$9.3B
+9.3% YoY
Net income
$1.9B
+9.2% YoY
Diluted EPS
$4.15
+11.3% YoY
Operating margin
27.5%
Headline: sales up 9% and EPS up 11%, but only about 4 points of the sales growth came from the core business
Linde, the world's largest industrial-gas company, reported record second-quarter 2026 sales of $9,289 million, up 9% from $8,495 million a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose 11% to $4.15. The 9% sales figure overstates how much the business itself grew. By the company's own breakdown, higher prices added 2 points and higher volumes another 2. Currency translation (a weaker U.S. dollar making foreign sales worth more in dollars) added 2 points. Acquisitions added 1, cost pass-through 1, and Engineering 1. Cost pass-through is energy-cost increases that Linde's contracts let it bill straight on to customers, with "minimal impact on operating profit".
Profit grew more slowly than sales. Operating margin, the share of sales left after running the business and before interest and tax, slipped slightly. EPS still grew faster than profit because Linde kept buying back its own shares: diluted shares outstanding fell 2%, from 473.6 million to 464.5 million.
Key figures
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Sales
$9,289M
$8,495M
+9%
Operating profit (reported)
$2,554M
$2,354M
+8%
Operating margin (reported)
27.5%
27.7%
-0.2 pts
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"Adjusted" figures are Linde's own non-GAAP measures. They mainly strip out amortization and other accounting effects left over from the 2018 Praxair–Linde AG merger: $190M of operating profit this quarter versus $202M a year ago. They are close to, but not the same as, the reported (GAAP) figures. There were no cost-reduction charges in either Q2.
What drove the quarter
Pricing and cost cuts, not demand, did most of the work. Linde says adjusted operating profit rose $188 million, or 7%, "driven by higher pricing, currency translation and productivity initiatives, which more than offset adverse impacts from cost inflation." Productivity initiatives here mostly means cost savings. Volumes contributed only 2% to sales. According to the filing, that growth came "primarily" from the electronics, manufacturing, and chemicals and energy end markets.
Why the margin slipped. Cost of sales (excluding depreciation) grew 13%, faster than the 9% sales growth, and rose to 52.3% of sales from 50.7%. The filing puts this down to "higher costs and cost pass-through." The pass-through is mostly an accounting drag on the margin percentage rather than lost profit. Billing customers for higher energy costs adds sales and nearly the same amount of cost, so revenue grows while profit barely moves, and the margin percentage falls. Overhead worked the other way: selling, general and administrative costs (SG&A) rose only 2% ($21 million, of which about $16 million was currency) and fell to 9.6% of sales from 10.2%.
Below the operating line, little changed. Net interest expense fell $6 million to $61 million. The effective tax rate dipped to 24.0% from 24.4%, and pension income was slightly lower. Net income for Linde shareholders rose 9% to $1,928 million, roughly in line with operating profit.
By region
Segment
Q2 2026 sales
YoY
Q2 2026 operating profit
YoY
Margin (vs. Q2 2025)
Americas
$4,083M
+7%
$1,272M
+5%
31.2% (31.7%)
EMEA
$2,303M
+7%
$823M
+6%
35.7% (36.1%)
APAC
$1,870M
+13%
$531M
+8%
28.4% (29.6%)
Engineering
$625M
+13%
$100M
+11%
16.0% (16.3%)
Other
$408M
+30%
$18M
vs. -$13M
4.4% (-4.1%)
Americas (about 44% of sales): price +2%, volume +2% "primarily driven by the electronics and manufacturing end markets", currency +2% (Mexican peso and Brazilian real) and acquisitions +1%. Profit grew 5%, slower than sales. Pricing, productivity and volume "more than offset cost inflation", but the margin still dipped half a point.
EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa): this is where the underlying picture is weakest. Volumes fell 1% in the quarter and 2% year-to-date, "primarily driven by the manufacturing end market". Currency (the stronger euro) added 3%, pass-through 2%, price 2% and acquisitions 1%, so the 7% sales growth hides shrinking volumes. Profit still rose 6% on productivity, currency and pricing. Linde is keeping EMEA margins near 36% even without volume growth, which says a lot about how firm its pricing is.
APAC (Asia-Pacific): the fastest-growing region. Volumes rose 6% "primarily driven by new project start-ups and equipment sales", with currency adding 3% (Australian dollar, Chinese yuan). The margin fell 1.2 points to 28.4%, the largest drop of any gas segment. The filing does not break out why. Our reading is that one-time equipment sales and the 2-point pass-through, both of which typically earn thinner margins than recurring gas supply, account for much of it.
Engineering (designing and building plants for third parties) rose 13% on "project timing". The six-month figure is only +2%, so the jump is lumpy, not a trend.
Other, which includes Linde Advanced Material Technologies (LAMT, coatings and materials) and helium wholesale, swung to an $18M profit from a $13M loss. The filing credits "higher volume/price in LAMT and lower corporate costs."
Cash, backlog and shareholder returns
Operating cash flow was $2,271 million in the quarter, up 3%. After $1,438 million of capital spending, free cash flow was $833 million, per the earnings release. Over six months, capital expenditures reached $2,780 million, $253 million more than a year earlier, "primarily due to investments in new plant and production equipment for backlog growth requirements."
That backlog is the key forward indicator for an industrial-gas company. Linde's sale-of-gas backlog is the estimated capital cost of large plants now under construction, each built to supply a customer under a long-term contract. It stood at about $8.1 billion at June 30, a record according to CEO Sanjiv Lamba, who noted a new long-term U.S. electronics supply contract signed in the quarter. The 6% APAC volume gain from "new project start-ups" shows how past backlog turns into revenue.
Linde also returned $1,590 million to shareholders in Q2 through dividends and buybacks. The quarterly dividend is $1.60 per share, up 7% from $1.50. At June 30, $5.6 billion remained under the $15 billion buyback program authorized in 2023.
Takeaway: Linde is growing earnings faster than its markets through pricing power, cost cuts and buybacks rather than demand. Price and volume together added only about 4% to sales, EMEA volumes are still shrinking, and margins dipped slightly. The 11% EPS gain came from a business that raised prices faster than costs and shrank its share count by 2%.
Outlook
Management guided third-quarter 2026 adjusted diluted EPS to $4.45–$4.55, up 6% to 8% year on year, with no expected currency effect. The full-year range is $17.70–$17.90 adjusted EPS (up 8% to 9%, assuming a 1% currency tailwind). It plans $5.5–6.0 billion of capital spending for 2026. Six-month capex of $2.78 billion puts it roughly on pace for the low end of that range.
Our read: The Q3 guide of 6–8% assumes no help from currency, while Q2's 10% adjusted EPS growth included about 2 points of currency tailwind on sales. Stripping currency out, management is guiding to underlying growth similar to, or slightly below, Q2's roughly 8% rather than a slowdown. The trajectory holds as long as pricing keeps running ahead of cost inflation and the backlog keeps starting up on schedule, adding contracted volume regardless of the industrial cycle. The main risk is volume. EMEA manufacturing demand is still contracting, and if Americas or APAC volumes weaken too, Linde would have to lean even harder on price and productivity to reach the top of its range. Electronics is where both the volume growth and the new contracts are coming from, which makes semiconductor-fab construction the demand driver to watch.
Source: Linde plc Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed July 31, 2026), with guidance and quarterly cash-flow figures from the Q2 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, July 31, 2026).