Ingevity Corporation NGVT recorded a first-quarter 2025 profit of $20.5 million or 56 cents per share. This compared favorably with a loss of $56 million or a loss of $1.54 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings in the quarter were 99 cents per share, up from 47 cents a year ago.

Revenues fell 16.5% year over year to $284 million in the quarter. This decline was due to lower sales in the Industrial Specialties product line and the Advanced Polymer Technologies segment.

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Ingevity Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS SurpriseIngevity Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

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NGVT’s Segmental Review

The Performance Chemicals division generated revenues of $95 million in the reported quarter, down around 35.4% year over year. Road Technologies' product line sales of $44.3 million were down 3%. Industrial Specialties’ product line sales of $50.7 million fell 50%, owing to the impact of the segment's repositioning measures, which were aimed at exiting lower-margin end markets. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the segment rose 97% to negative $0.3 million as a result of the successful implementation of the repositioning plans and cost savings, as well as lower raw material costs.

Revenues in the Performance Materials unit rose around 1.2% year over year to $146.8 million. This upside was driven by volume growth in the Asia Pacific region and China. North America witnessed lower volumes. But the metric improved due to a mix of more fuel-efficient vehicles. Segment EBITDA was $79.1 million, up 1.4%.

Sales in the Advanced Polymer Technologies segment were down 12.1% to $42.2 million. This downside was due to higher volumes in the EMEA region and North America being offset by lower volumes in Asia. Segment EBITDA was $12.5 million, up 31.6%, due to higher utilization rates in preparation for a planned extended outage in the second quarter.

NGVT’s Financials

The first-quarter operating cash flow was $25.4 million, with free cash flow of $15.4 million. There were no share repurchases during the quarter, leaving $353.4 million remaining under the current $500 million authorization. Net leverage improved to 3.3x from the previous quarter’s 3.6x.

NGVT’s 2025 Outlook Revised

NGVT's focus will be on improving profitability and reducing leverage. With the current state of trade affairs in mind, NGVT has broadened the range of its guidance to incorporate the potential risks of lower expected global auto production. Per the revised guidance, sales are expected to be between $1.25 billion and $1.40 billion, and adjusted EBITDA between $380 million and $415 million.

Story Continues

NGVT Stock’s Price Performance

Shares of Ingevity have lost 26.1% in a year compared with the industry’s 3.1% decline.Zacks Investment Research

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NGVT’s Rank & Key Picks

NGVT currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the Basic Materials space are Brenntag SE BNTGY, Contango Ore, Inc. CTGO and Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. ASM. While BNTGY and CTGO sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each, ASM carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

BNTGY is slated to report first-quarter results on May 14. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Brenntag’sfirst-quarter earnings is pegged at 24 cents per share.

Contango is scheduled to report first-quarter results on May 14. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CTGO’s first-quarter earnings is pegged at a loss of 32 cents per share. CTGO’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters while missing in one, with the average surprise being 213.7%.

Avino Silver & Gold Mines is slated to release first-quarter results on May 13. The consensus estimate for ASM’s first-quarter earnings is pegged at 3 cents per share. ASM delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 94.4%, on average.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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