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.

At this most recent $1.10 quarterly pay rate, Air Products's annual dividend is calculated at $4.40 yielding 2.7% at yesterday's closing $163.05 price.

Gains For APD?

Adding the $4.40 estimated annual dividend to the $13.87 estimated year over year price gain for Air Products makes a $18.27  gross annual per share gain, which will be reduced by costs to trade the shares.  

 A little under $1,000.00 invested today at the $163.05 recent price buys 6 Air Products Chemicals, Inc. shares. 

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale costs $1.67 per share

Subtracting that $1.67 brokerage cost from the estimated $18.27 gross gain leaves a net gain of $16.60 X 6 shares 

= $99.60

or a near 10% net gain on a $978.30 investment.

Therefore, Products Chemicals, Inc., whose trading ticker symbol is APD, now shows a possible 10% net gain including a 2.7% dividend yield. 

Twenty brokers cover this stock:

Eleven say "buy" APD.

Five say APD will "outperform" its peers

Four say APD is a stock to "hold".

Thus, the analyst consensus recommendation number is 1.65 or "outperform".

The median price target set by those twenty brokers is $11.55 over the $176.92 year over year price target I named. 

So, you could look at all those various numbers this way, Air Products Chemicals, Inc. has made money, is making money, and could net a 10% net annual gain including a 27% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. Actual results remain to be seen. Those results will determine if Air Products Chemicals, Inc. (APD) is worth your time and money.