Linde plc — Earnings Quality Grade F
LIN · Basic Materials
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 53 days, change +2 days YoY
AR growth 7.4% vs revenue growth 3.0%
Revenue 3.0%, CFFO 9.8%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
Inventory 5.6% vs COGS 1.4%. Normal
CapEx growth 17.0% vs revenue 3.0%. Normal
SG&A/Gross Profit = 20.7%, excellent (<30%)
Gross margin 48.8%, change +0.8pp. Stable
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = 1.50. Profits backed by cash
FCF $5.1B, FCF/NI = 0.74
Accruals ratio = -4.0%. Low accruals
Cash $5.1B covers only 18% of debt $28.1B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $39.8B = 104% of equity. Over 50%
Debt/EBITDA = 2.1x. Healthy
Other assets 17.6% vs revenue 3.0%. Normal
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions positive
Goodwill+Intangibles change 7% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -2.64 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-08