Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Top 5 Chemical Companies To Watch For 2014

After market close today, many big-name dividend-paying companies announced their quarterly earnings. Below, we highlight the most important parts of these earnings announcements for dividend investors.

FMC Corp Misses EPS Views; Gives Q4 Guidance

Diversified chemical company FMC Corp (FMC) reported consolidated Q3 revenue of $957.4 million, which marked a 16% increase from last year’s Q3 revenue. The company’s consolidated adjusted earnings per share came in at 82 cents per diluted share, marking a 7% increase from last year’s comparable figure. The company was able to meet analysts’ EPS estimates, but fell slightly below revenue views of $976.54 million. Looking forward, FMC sees 2013 Q4 earnings coming in the range of 90 cents to $1. For FY2013, the company sees EPS coming in the range of $3.74 to $3.84.

Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (MX)

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation designs and manufactures analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high-volume consumer applications. It operates in three segments: Display Solutions, Power Solutions, and Semiconductor Manufacturing Services. The Display Solutions segment offers source and gate drivers, and timing controllers that cover a range of flat panel displays used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light emitting diodes (LEDs), 3D and organic light emitting diode televisions and displays, notebooks, and mobile communications and entertainment devices. The Power Solutions segment develop, manufactures, and markets power management solutions, including metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, power modules, analog switches, LED drivers, DC-DC converters, voice coil motor drivers, and linear regulators. This segment offers its products for a range of devices, including LCD, LED, 3D televisions, smartphones, mobile phones, desktop PCs, notebooks , tablet PCs, and other consumer electronics, as well as for industrial applications, such as power suppliers, LED lighting, and home appliances. The Semiconductor Manufacturing Services segment manufactures various products comprising display drivers, LED drivers, audio encoding and decoding devices, microcontrollers, touch screen controllers, RF switches, park distance control sensors for automotives, electronic tag memories, and power management semiconductors. This segment offers semiconductor manufacturing services to fabless analog and mixed-signal semiconductor companies. MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation provides its products and services to consumer electronics OEMs, subsystem designers, and contract manufacturers through a direct sales force, as well as through a network of authorized agents and distributors in the United States, Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Wallace Witkowski]

    Shares of MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp. (MX) �fell 13% to $12.50 on moderate volume after the company said it incorrectly stated revenue and has to restate its financial statements going back to 2011. Also, the company withdrew its guidance for the fourth quarter.

  • [By Brian Pacampara]

    Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, consumer gadget chip maker MagnaChip Semiconductor (NYSE: MX  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

Top 5 Chemical Companies To Watch For 2014: Rentech Inc (RTK)

Rentech, Inc. (Rentech), incorporated in 1981, is a provider of clean energy solutions. The Company owns and operates a nitrogen fertilizer plant in East Dubuque, Illinois, that manufactures and sells natural gas-based nitrogen fertilizer products within the corn-belt region in the United States. It is developing energy projects to produce certified synthetic fuels and electric power from carbon-containing materials, such as biomass, waste and fossil resources. Its technologies can produce synthesis gas (syngas) from biomass and waste materials, and convert syngas from its own or other gasification technologies into complex hydrocarbons (the Rentech Process) that are then upgraded into fuels using refining technology that it licenses. In addition to developing projects using these technologies, it is pursuing the licensing of its technologies to developers of projects that are expected to produce fuels and/or power. In May 2011, it acquired majority interest in ClearFuels Technology Inc. In May 2013, Rentech Inc acquired the entire share capital of Fulghum Fibres Inc. In August 2013, Rentech Inc announced that a subsidiary of the Company closed the sale of approximately 450 acres in Natchez, Mississippi to Adams County, Mississippi.

The Rentech Process is a technology based on Fischer-Tropsch (FT) chemistry, which converts syngas that can be produced from a range of biomass, waste and fossil resources into hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons can be processed and upgraded into synthetic fuels, such as military and commercial jet fuels and low sulfur diesel fuel, as well as waxes and chemicals. Unlike some other alternative transportation fuels, such as ethanol, fuels produced from the Rentech Process can be transported and used in existing infrastructure, including pipelines and engines without blending restrictions. Its technology portfolio also includes the Rentech-SilvaGas biomass gasification technology (the Rentech-SilvaGas Technology), which enables it to offer integrated technologies t! hat can convert biomass and wastes to syngas and into clean fuels and electric power.

The Rentech Process can produce synthetic diesel fuels (RenDiesel1 fuels), which are clean burning having lower emissions of regulated pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and particulate matter, than traditional petroleum-based diesel fuels. The Rentech Process also can produce synthetic jet fuel (RenJet fuel), which when blended with conventional jet fuel meet jet fuel specifications for military jet fuel and commercial Jet A and Jet A-1 fuels. It is developing a proposed project near Natchez, Mississippi (the Natchez Project) designed to produce approximately 30,000 barrels per day of synthetic fuels and chemicals and approximately 120 megawatts of power. It is evaluating alternative configurations for the Natchez site, which would initially be smaller in scale. The alternate configurations may use various feed-stocks alone or in various combinations, and include proportions of waxes and chemicals as products.

The Company owns, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Rentech Energy Midwest Corporation (REMC), a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant that uses natural gas as its feedstock to produce syngas and then nitrogen fertilizer products. The products, the Company can produce include renewable synthetic diesel and jet fuels, naphtha and power from biomass resources; synthetic diesel and jet fuels, naphtha and power from fossil or fossil and biomass resources, and paraffinic waxes, solvents and specialty chemicals.

The Company competes with ExxonMobil, the Royal Dutch/Shell group, Statoil, BP and Sasol.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Robert Rapier] While the MLP space is dominated by the oil and gas sector, in last week’s article we began to explore some of the more exotic master limited partnership offerings. This week we continue our exploration of nontraditional MLPs by looking at the partnerships supplying fertilizer.

    Rentech (Nasdaq: RTK) has been around for more than a decade, and it has shifted strategies several times. Full disclosure: Rentech’s Chief Technology Officer Harold Wright is a former manager of mine when we were both at ConocoPhillips, and I have visited Rentech’s facility in Commerce City, Colorado.

    For most of Rentech’s existence, the company has sought to commercialize alternative fuels. At one time it had ambitions to build a large coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant, but federal legislation ultimately nudged it instead into the biomass-to-liquids (BTL) space. The company did build a BTL demonstration plant, but ultimately shut it down and has now refocused its efforts on becoming “one of the largest wood processing companies in the world.”

    During its interesting journey as a company, Rentech acquired two ammonia nitrogen fertilizer facilities, which turned out to be a profit center that funded the alternative energy research. In November 2011, Rentech spun off this fertilizer business into an MLP called Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP (NYSE: RNF).

    In the months leading to the spin-off, RTK’s market capitalization was about $200 million. Rentech maintained 60 percent ownership of RNF, and three months after the spin-off RTK’s market cap had risen to $400 million, while investors had bid RNF up to $1 billion. Interestingly, RTK’s share of RNF was worth more than RTK’s entire market cap, a situation that persists. The market currently values Rentech at $482 million, while the valuation of Rentech Nitrogen Partners makes RTK’s 60 percent stake in RNF worth slightly more than $600 million — another illu
  • [By Travis Hoium]

    What: Shares of fertilizer and renewable energy company Rentech (NASDAQ: RTK  ) jumped 17% today after the company announced an acquisition.

Top 5 Chemical Companies To Watch For 2014: KMG Chemicals Inc (KMG)

KMG Chemicals, Inc., incorporated on July 30, 1992, manufactures, formulates and globally distributes specialty chemicals. The Company has acquired and operates businesses selling electronic chemicals and industrial wood treating chemicals. The Company operates in two segments: electronic chemicals and wood treating chemicals. The Company's electronic chemicals segment provides wet process chemicals to the semiconductor industry, primarily to clean and etch silicon wafers in the production of semiconductors. The Company supplies wet process chemicals to the semiconductor industry in the United States and Europe. Its wood treating chemicals, pentachlorophenol (penta), and creosote, are sold to industrial customers who use these preservatives primarily to extend the useful life of utility poles and railroad crossties. The Company is the supplier of penta in North America, and supplier of creosote in the United States to wood treaters who do not produce their own creosote. On March 1, 2012, the Company discontinued its animal health business. In June 2013, the Company announced that it completed the acquisition of the Ultra Pure Chemicals subsidiaries of OM Group Inc located in the United States, England and Singapore.

Electronic Chemicals

The Company's electronic chemicals business sells wet process chemicals primarily to the semiconductor industry. These chemicals are used to clean and etch silicon wafers in the production of semiconductors. The Company's products include sulfuric, phosphoric, nitric and hydrofluoric acids, ammonium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl alcohol and various blends of chemicals. The Company's products are sold in bulk and in containers, including bottles, drums and totes. This process is accomplished at the Company's Pueblo, Colorado, Hollister, California and Milan, Italy facilities, although the Company contracts with General Chemical to produce certain products for the Company at its facility. As of July 31, 2012, the Company's electronic ! chemicals business accounted for 58.5% of its net sales.

Wood Treating Chemicals

The Company supplies penta and creosote to industrial customers who use these products to extend the useful life of wood, primarily utility poles and railroad crossties. The Company's penta products include penta blocks, solutions and hydrochloric acid, a byproduct of penta production. Penta is used primarily to treat utility poles, protecting them from insect damage and decay. The Company manufactures solid penta blocks at its facility in Matamoros, Mexico. The Company sells solid penta to its customers, or make it into a liquid solution of penta concentrate at its Matamoros, Mexico and Tuscaloosa, Alabama facilities. The Company sells penta products primarily in the southeastern and northwestern United States and in Canada. The hydrochloric acid the Company produces as a byproduct of penta production is sold in Mexico for use in the steel and oils well service industries. Creosote is a wood preservative used to treat utility poles and railroad crossties. Creosote is produced by the distillation of coal tar, a by-product of the transformation of coal into coke. The Company sells creosote to wood treaters throughout the United States. As of July 31, 2012, the Company's wood treating chemicals constituted about 41.4% of the Company's net sales.

The Company competes with Honeywell, Kanto Corporation, Avantor, BASF and the OM Group.

Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Seth Jayson]

    Calling all cash flows
    When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on KMG Chemicals (NYSE: KMG  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

  • [By Caroline Bennett]

    J. Neal Butler, KMG Chemicals' (NYSE: KMG  ) CEO and president, has resigned from his positions with the company. Effective July 10,�Christopher Fraser, KMG's chairman of the board of directors, will serve as interim replacement CEO and president, the company announced today.

Top 5 Chemical Companies To Watch For 2014: AZ Electronic Materials SA (AZEM)

AZ Electronic Materials SA is a producer and supplier of specialty chemical materials. AZ operates in four segments: IC Materials, which includes products for use in integrated circuits and devices; Optronics, which includes products used in the production of flat panel displays for use in televisions, computer monitors and similar equipment and light emitting diode technology; Printing and Other, which includes printing and similar products used in photo lithographic processes, and Corporate. The Company�� products enable the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs) and flat panel displays (FPDs) that are integral to a range of electronic devices and applications, including computers and tablet devices, flat screen televisions, mobile communication devices, industrial and automotive applications and the developing light and energy markets. Advisors' Opinion:
  • [By Corinne Gretler]

    AZ Electronic (AZEM) surged 43 percent, the most since its at least November 2010, after Merck on Dec. 5 said it had agreed to buy the company for about 1.6 billion pounds. Merck added 0.4 percent. Shareholders will get 403.5 pence for each share, Merck said. The price is 53 percent above the Dec. 4 closing level in London trading.

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