Air Products posts 12% EPS growth while cutting capex by $1.8 billion
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on November 5, 2026.
Our fiscal 2026 results demonstrate the progress we are making to improve our core industrial gas business, strengthen execution, and allocate capital with discipline. We delivered 12 percent adjusted EPS growth, reduced capital expenditures by $1.8 billion, and expanded our industrial gas project backlog through new business wins.
Menezes is pitching Air Products as a leaner industrial gas operator, with $1.8 billion pulled out of capital spending while earnings still grew. Whether that discipline holds as the project backlog builds is the question for fiscal 2027 guidance.
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Eduardo Menezes, who took the helm at Air Products and Chemicals with a mandate to sharpen the company's focus on its core industrial gas operations, used the fiscal 2026 earnings report to make his clearest case yet that the turnaround is taking hold. Adjusted earnings per share grew 12 percent for the full fiscal year, a result he attributed to stronger execution and tighter capital discipline.
The most striking number from the report is a $1.8 billion reduction in capital expenditures. That is a substantial pullback for an industrial gas company whose growth model has historically leaned on large, capital-intensive long-term supply contracts, so cutting spending at that scale while still growing earnings signals a deliberate reordering of priorities.
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At the same time, Menezes pointed to an expanding project backlog driven by new business wins, so growth plans remain intact alongside the capex cuts. The tension between a leaner balance sheet and a fuller backlog will define how investors read the company's trajectory heading into fiscal 2027.
The key question going forward is whether capital discipline holds as those backlog projects move from signed agreements toward the construction and commissioning phases that typically demand heavy spending. Fiscal 2027 guidance will be the first real test of whether Air Products can sustain both the earnings momentum and the restrained spending posture Menezes is now staking his reputation on.