Air Products To Hike Liquid And Bulk Industrial Gas Prices

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) recently announced that it will raise the product pricing, surcharges and monthly service charges for merchant customers in North America. The price hike is effective Oct 1, 2019 or as contracts permit.

The pricing adjustment includes up to 15% hike in prices of liquid and bulk hydrogen. Prices of liquid argon will increase up to 20%. Liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen prices will rise up to 10%. Also, prices for liquid carbon dioxide and monthly service charges will increase up to 10%.

The company also stated that certain price adjustments may be outside the stated ranges based on specific situations. Moreover, prices of helium will be increased on the basis of demand-supply as well as cost situations and may also be customer specific.

Air Products is making these price adjustments in response to higher sourcing, production and delivery costs.

Air Products’ shares have rallied 37.9% year to date against the industry’s decline of 22.2%.

In July, the company revised adjusted earnings per share (EPS) guidance for fiscal 2019 in the range of $8.20-$8.25 from the previous expectation of $8.15-$8.30. This suggests more than 10% rise year over year at the midpoint.

Air Products expects adjusted EPS for fourth-quarter fiscal 2019 in the band of $2.26-$2.31, which indicates year-over-year rise of 13-16%.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Air Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE:KGC) , Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) and Arconic Inc (NYSE:ARNC) , all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Kinross has an expected earnings growth rate of 160% for 2019. The company’s shares have surged 79.7% in the past year.

Agnico Eagle has projected earnings growth rate of 157.1% for the current year. The company’s shares have rallied 69.5% in a year’s time.

Arconic has an estimated earnings growth rate of 50% for the current year. Its shares have moved up 21.3% in the past year.

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