Linde PLC vs Western Digital Corp — how do they compare? Linde PLC trades at $490.21 (market cap $227.01B), while Western Digital Corp trades at $444.5 (market cap $151.09B). The key difference: Linde PLC is the larger of the two by market cap, and Linde PLC pays the higher dividend (1.3%). Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| LIN | WDC | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $227.01B | $151.09B |
Sector | Basic Materials | Technology |
52-Week High | $546.64 | $746.23 |
52-Week Low | $389.38 | $74.66 |
Enterprise Value | $250.13B | $150.56B |
Dividend Yield | 1.3% | 0.14% |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Linde (LIN) trades at $490.53, up 0.11% on the day, with a bearish technical signal despite strong fundamentals. The stock has consistently beaten earnings estimates, with Q2 2026 EPS of $4.50 surpassing expectations. Revenue grew to $34.0B in 2025, with a net income margin of 20.43%. Analysts maintain a strong buy consensus with a $553.60 price target, highlighting robust profitability and dividend growth.
Outlook remains positive due to earnings momentum and sustainability leadership, but risks include elevated valuation multiples and rising debt-to-asset ratio. The stock offers steady income with a $1.60 dividend, yet technical weakness near support at $489 warrants caution for near-term volatility.
WDC trades at $434.3, down 3.81% over 24 hours, with a bearish technical signal as it hovers near the pivot point of $440. The company has shown strong earnings beats in recent quarters, with Q2 2026 EPS of $3.56 surpassing the $3.31 estimate, and maintains robust profitability margins, including a net income margin of 72.95% for 2025. Revenue for 2025 was $9.52B, with a significant turnaround to net income of $1.86B from prior losses, indicating operational recovery amid high cloud demand.
The outlook is mixed, with analyst consensus strongly bullish (72.13% buy ratings) and a price target of $665.15 suggesting substantial upside, but risks include high valuation multiples like a P/E of 17.89 and EV/EBITDA of 29.99, competitive pressures in HDD storage, and recent post-earnings sell-offs due to margin concerns. Investors should weigh the growth potential from AI-driven storage demand against cyclical and valuation headwinds.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Linde is the largest industrial gas supplier in the world, with operations in over 100 countries. The firm's main products are atmospheric gases (including oxygen, nitrogen, and argon) and process gases (including hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and helium), as well as equipment used in industrial gas production. Linde serves a wide variety of end markets, including chemicals, manufacturing, healthcare, and steelmaking. Linde generated approximately $31 billion in revenue and $5 billion in GAAP operating profit in 2021.
Read more on LIN →Western Digital is a vertically integrated supplier of data storage solutions, spanning both hard disk drives and solid-state drives. In the HDD market it forms a practical duopoly with Seagate, and it is the largest global producer of NAND flash chips for SSDs in a joint venture with competitor Kioxia.
Read more on WDC →