The materials sector includes thirteen industries all related to mining, making and delivering essential commodities. The industries are: agricultural inputs; aluminum; building materials; chemicals; coal; copper; industrial metals and minerals; paper; silver; specialty chemicals; steel.

Today I’m reviewing a large-cap chemicals firm named Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. It’s trading ticker symbol is APD. This is my first time reviewing APD!

Air Products & Chemicals Inc is a supplier of hydrogen and helium, refinery hydrogen, natural gas liquefaction, and coatings and adhesives. It also provides semiconductor materials, equipment, and services worldwide. 

It serves customers in various industries, including metals, glass, chemical processing, electronics, energy production and refining, food processing, metallurgical, medical, and general manufacturing. 

It also designs and manufactures equipment for air separation, hydrocarbon recovery and purification, natural gas liquefaction, and liquid helium and liquid hydrogen transport and storage. 

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. was founded in 1940 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

I use three key data points to gauge the value of any dividend equity or fund like  Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD): 

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, four more keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

But those first three primary keys, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money. 

APD Price

Air Products price per share was $163.05 at yesterday’s market close. A year ago its price was $149.18 for a gain of $13.87 per share.  

Assuming WLKP’s price will trade in the range of $140 to $180 next year, perhaps that $13.87 gain could repeat and take APD’s current $163.05 price to $176.92 by early September 2019. 

APD Dividends

Air Products most recent quarterly dividend was $1.10 declared July 19th and payable November 12th. That dividend was increased from $0.95 in May 2018.