Innospec Inc. IOSP recorded a profit of $41.4 million or $1.65 per share in first-quarter 2024, up from a profit of $33.2 million or $1.33 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Barring one-time items, earnings came in at $1.75 per share, up from $1.38 per share a year ago. It topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.64.
The company’s revenues fell roughly 2% year over year to $500.2 million in the quarter. It missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $508 million. The company saw continued strong results in its Performance Chemicals segment with operating income more than doubling year over year on increased sales and improved gross margins.
Innospec Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Innospec Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Innospec Inc. Quote
Segment Highlights
The Performance Chemicals unit logged sales of $160.8 million in the reported quarter, up around 6% year over year, aided by higher volumes, acquisition growth and favorable currency swings, partly offset by unfavorable price/mix. It was above the consensus estimate of $159.7 million.
Revenues in the Fuel Specialties segment fell roughly 7% year over year to $176.9 million in the reported quarter as an unfavorable price/mix and lower volumes more than offset the positive currency impact. The figure was below the consensus estimate of $185.6 million.
Revenues in the Oilfield Services division fell around 3% year over year to $162.5 million. It was higher than the consensus estimate of $153 million. Weaker results in production chemicals offset the improvements in other segments.
Financials
Innospec ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $270.1 million, up around 33% sequentially.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $80.6 million in the reported quarter, up from $21.8 million a year ago.
IOSP declared a semi-annual dividend of 76 cents per share for the first half of 2024, representing a 10% increase.
Outlook
Innospec said that it has an extensive set of technology-based organic opportunities across the businesses, which it expects will continue to drive further growth and margin improvement. It has significant flexibility and balance sheet strength for potential further dividend growth, buybacks, mergers and acquisitions and organic investment, IOSP noted.
Price Performance
Shares of Innospec have gained 32.3% over a year, compared with the industry’s 0.9% rise.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Zacks Rank & Other Chemicals Releases
IOSP currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Celanese Corporation CE logged adjusted earnings for the first quarter of $2.08 per share, up 3.5% from $2.01 reported a year ago. The bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.91.
Celanese sees adjusted earnings in the band of $2.60 to $3 per share for the second quarter of 2024. CE expects to deliver higher earnings performance in the second quarter and into the second half of 2024.
Ingevity Corporation NGVT reported adjusted earnings of 52 cents per share for the first quarter, down from $1.09 in the year-ago quarter. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 37 cents.
NGVT sees its sales for 2024 in the band of $1.4-$1.55 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $365-$390 million.
Element Solutions Inc’s ESI adjusted earnings of 34 cents per share for the first quarter beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 32 cents.
ESI now expects adjusted EBITDA in the range of $515-$530 million for 2024. For second-quarter 2024, it sees adjusted EBITDA to be around $125 million.
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