While we are fans of candor, we confess to being a little surprised at CEO Frank Sullivan’s discussion/interest in the PPG N.A. Architectural Coatings business. When PPG made the announcement in late February, we were asked by a few investors would RPM be a likely acquirer. We said “no,” but what do we know ……
RPM reported adj. F3Q EPS of $0.52 (GAAP $0.47), beating consensus $0.46 and our $0.48 with lower taxes a 3c benefit. Sales of $1.523B were flat yr/yr (organic +0.9%, M&A -0.1%, FX -0.4%) essentially in line with our $1.520B/consensus $1.518B. By geography, LatAm increased 14%, while the largest region, NA, was down 1% and Europe declined 2%. Adj…
We view today’s announcement as a significant step towards fulfilling the promise of ORGN as the world’s leading carbon negative materials company. While it announced the successful start-up of Origin 1 back in late June (note that we were impressed with the site during our early June visit (Fermium ORGN: O Canada! Not Just “Where…
Here we go, rolling into another earnings season, but perhaps this one is closer to the light at the end of what feels like a very long tunnel blurred by multiple quarters of destocking, depressed demand, and macro uncertainty. With a better grasp on visibility, we’re expecting all of our companies to report in-line or…
Since LYB reported results on February 2nd, we believe industry conditions have come in moderately more favorably, not the least of which being the successful PE price increase in January. Furthermore, energy and feedstocks have been more muted, so despite the lackluster global macro backdrop, we believe 1Q24 will show a more positive sequential improvement…
As we’ve progressed through 1Q24 since DOW reported results on January 25, we believe industry conditions have come in moderately more favorably, not the least of which being the successful PE price increase in January. Furthermore, energy and feedstocks have been more muted, so despite the lackluster global macro backdrop, we believe 1Q24 will show…
Stop the presses! We are re-visiting our TROX model mid-quarter and are NOT lowering our estimates. In fact, we’re raising our EBITDA expectations! We can’t remember the last time this was the case (TROX has missed 8 of the last 11 quarters on EBITDA; reminds us of Kentucky in the NCAA tournament) but must say,…
Between 1:32pm when EMN “trading halted” and the 1:38pm press release, members of Fermium Research and selected investors were scurrying with (admittedly speculative) theories with one positing that “maybe it’s about the methanolysis unit ramping up?” However, this was quickly dismissed since it was already a fait accompli (in our view) that it would be…
We revisited our AVNT estimates and made modest adjustments to our 1Q sales and earnings expectations. By region, we believe demand in the U.S. continues to outpace demand in Asia and Europe, with the latter likely posting a low-single-digit volume decline in 1Q; a significant improvement from the ~14% yr/yr decline registered in 4Q23 with…