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Air Products & Chemicals Inc.
Rule-based classification of fundamentals against the sector. Not a price forecast and not investment advice.
Weak signals across every dimension
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0 of 5 met · composite below the peer average
Business quality, valuation against the sector, and position in the 52-week range — whether they line up or not.
Mixed signals
Profitability
2/4
Debt & liquidity
2/3
Efficiency
1/2
Valuation sits at a premium despite fundamentals that trail the sector on nearly every axis: EV/EBITDA of 100.2× runs +397% above the sector median 20.2×, and P/B of 4.6× exceeds the median 3.8× by +21%. ROIC of -5.3% falls -152% below the sector median 10.2%, and operating margin of -7.3% lags the median 18.7% by -139% — the capital deployed is not earning at a rate that justifies the price. The one clear positive is the balance sheet: Debt/EBITDA of 0.0× sits -100% below the sector median 2.1×, which limits near-term financial stress. The F-Score of 5/9 and a composite of 23/100 against the sector median confirm the mixed-to-weak read; consensus carries a stretched forward PEG and a weak beat rate over eight quarters, so the market's growth assumptions rest on a thin track record.
| Ticker | Name | F-Score | ROE | Revenue YoY | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APD | Air Products & Chemicals Inc. | 5/9 | -2% | -1% |
Priced at 21.4× of expected earnings; analyst sentiment is steady; has mostly beaten consensus.
Price against next year's expected earnings. The forward P/E already carries analyst optimism — read it alongside the “Versus consensus” line.
The three-month change in the share of positive analyst ratings. This is sentiment, not an earnings-estimate revision, and not a call to act.
The last few quarters are recent context, not a fixed rate. Consensus for near quarters is set low, so companies clear it routinely; over long horizons the forecasts run the other way, too high.
When APD reports on 2026-11-04, track operating margin against the current 18.7% figure, which sits 139% below the sector median. Also check whether ROIC shows any movement toward the sector midpoint, as the F-Score profitability sub-score of 2/4 flags this as the weakest dimension of the investment case.
Pull APD's most recent 10-K on SEC EDGAR and focus on the capital allocation section — the Debt/EBITDA of 2.14x is the one signal above the sector median, so confirm how management plans to deploy that capacity. Cross-reference the MD&A for any commentary on the ROIC drag and whether project-level returns are expected to shift.
From the same-sector table in section 06, pick two or three companies yourself and line up one metric — operating margin or ROIC works well given APD's weak signals in both. The table is alphabetical with no ranking, so the comparison is yours to construct; the goal is to place APD's 18.7% operating margin and 10.2% ROIC in a peer context rather than reading them in isolation.
Steps you can check yourself, based on the figures in this brief.
Piotroski F-Score: nine binary tests of financial strength from the annual report. A ✓ marks a test passed, a dot (·) a test failed.
Over 4 years: -72%-682%-122%-20%
Over 4 years: 1.750.000.000.00
Over 4 years: +23%-1%-4%-1%
The context on the right shows how each figure compares with the sector median. The trend below tracks the change over recent fiscal years.
Beat consensus in 7 of 8 recent quarters — the company clears estimates regularly (consensus is often set conservatively).
Last quarter's EPS against consensus, plus the estimated date of the next report.
| -7% |
| CTVA | Corteva | 7/9 | 5% | +3% | — |
| DD | DuPont | 5/9 | -4% | +2% | — |
| DOW | Dow Inc. | 3/9 | -15% | -7% | — |
| ECL | Ecolab | 5/9 | 22% | +2% | 17% |
| FCX | Freeport-McMoRan | 5/9 | 23% | +2% | 25% |
| LIN | Linde | 4/9 | 18% | +3% | 26% |
| MLM | Martin Marietta | 8/9 | 12% | +9% | 23% |
| NEM | Newmont | 8/9 | 22% | +21% | — |
| NUE | Nucor | 6/9 | 8% | +6% | — |
| PKG | Packaging Corp | 3/9 | 17% | +7% | 12% |
| PPG | PPG Industries | 6/9 | 21% | +0% | — |
| SHW | Sherwin-Williams | 6/9 | 59% | +2% | — |
| STLD | Steel Dynamics | 5/9 | 13% | +4% | 8% |
| VMC | Vulcan Materials | 9/9 | 13% | +7% | 20% |
A sample of 15 companies in the sector including the target, alphabetical, unranked. Data from the latest SEC annual reports.
Rule-based classification of fundamentals against the sector. Not a price forecast and not investment advice.
A description of what the market and analysts expect. Not a price forecast and not investment advice. Analyst forecasts run systematically optimistic over long horizons — read them with that discount.