Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus on Air Products and Chemicals, with 10 buy, 7 hold and 1 strong-buy rating. The average 12-month price target is $336.53, above the reported $279 share price.
• Institutional investors own 81.66% of APD, with major holders including State Street, BlackRock and Capital International Investors increasing or establishing positions.
• The company exceeded quarterly EPS expectations, reporting $3.47 versus the $3.34 consensus, while revenue rose 4.6% year over year to $3.16 billion. APD also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.81, equivalent to a 2.6% annualized yield.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eighteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $336.53.

Several analysts recently commented on APD shares. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Air Products and Chemicals from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Air Products and Chemicals from $330.00 to $336.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $373.00 target price on shares of Air Products and Chemicals in a research report on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Air Products and Chemicals in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. They set a "sector weight" rating for the company. Finally, Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $342.00 price target on shares of Air Products and Chemicals in a report on Friday, July 10th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APD. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Air Products and Chemicals by 277.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,161,451 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,597,451,000 after buying an additional 28,050,956 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Air Products and Chemicals during the second quarter valued at approximately $5,370,093,000. Capital International Investors raised its position in Air Products and Chemicals by 44.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 12,792,580 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,160,023,000 after acquiring an additional 3,922,567 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Air Products and Chemicals by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 11,904,537 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,940,665,000 after acquiring an additional 137,595 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Air Products and Chemicals by 14.3% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,443,531 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,290,801,000 after acquiring an additional 556,188 shares during the last quarter. 81.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Air Products and Chemicals Stock Performance

Shares of APD stock opened at $279.00 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $62.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1,268.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.75. Air Products and Chemicals has a 1-year low of $229.11 and a 1-year high of $314.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $297.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $293.61.

Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE:APD - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $3.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.34 by $0.13. Air Products and Chemicals had a positive return on equity of 16.87% and a negative net margin of 0.38%.The firm had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.09 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. Air Products and Chemicals has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.390-13.490 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Air Products and Chemicals will post 13.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Air Products and Chemicals Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be paid a $1.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $7.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Air Products and Chemicals's payout ratio is -3,290.91%.

Air Products and Chemicals Company Profile

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc is a global industrial gases and related equipment company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as process and specialty gases including hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and syngas.

Air Products serves customers in a range of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, food and beverage, healthcare and energy. Its offerings include gases delivered through pipelines, bulk and packaged distribution, and on-site production systems, along with gas-processing equipment and technologies used in applications such as hydrogen production, natural gas liquefaction and carbon capture.

Founded in 1940, Air Products operates across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other international markets.

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