One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$14.29 our estimate vs market $21.16
48% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Croda International Plc
COIHY · PNK · Basic Materials · Specialty Chemicals
Current price
$21.16
52-week range
$16.68 - $23.81
Market cap
$5.90B
Balance sheet
Healthy
9.21x Adequate
Net debt $778.47M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 4.4% last year.
- Reward Returns 3.7% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Risk Net debt grew 77.4% over 3 years.
- Risk Stock trades 14.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Croda International Plc
Croda International is a British company that creates and sells specialty chemicals, which are the high-performance ingredients inside many other companies' products. Most of its revenue (the money it makes from sales) comes from selling these ingredients to businesses in Consumer Care (for things like anti-aging creams), Life Sciences (for coatings that help seeds grow), and Industrial Specialties (for additives in plastics). By supplying so many different types of industries, the company's success isn't tied to the fortunes of just one area of the economy.
How the company got here
Croda International began in 1925 in the north of England when its founders started manufacturing lanolin, a grease from sheep's wool, for things like cosmetics and waterproofing. A key moment came when they discovered lanolin could prevent rust, which opened up new industrial uses and saved the young company. Over the years, Croda expanded globally, listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1964, and bought other companies to enter new markets like skincare and pharmaceuticals. More recently, the company has focused on its core business of specialty chemicals, selling off other divisions to concentrate on ingredients for life sciences and consumer products.
What it actually does
Croda makes and sells specialty chemicals, which are high-value ingredients that give everyday products their specific properties. You won't find Croda's name on a store shelf, but their science is inside many well-known brands. For example, they create ingredients that make skin creams feel smooth, help sunscreen protect you from the sun, and allow medicines to be delivered more effectively in the body. They also produce additives that make crops healthier and more productive. Essentially, Croda provides the hidden technology that makes thousands of other companies' products work better.
Consumer Care
This is Croda's largest business area, providing ingredients for personal care and home care products. Companies that make things like anti-aging creams, shampoo, and laundry detergent buy Croda's ingredients to improve their products' performance and feel. This segment also includes a business that creates fragrances and flavors for a wide range of consumer goods. Think of this division as the source of the special touches that make you choose one brand of lotion or soap over another.
Life Sciences
This part of the company focuses on ingredients for the healthcare and agriculture industries. In healthcare, they create components that help deliver drugs into the body more effectively; for instance, they supplied a key ingredient for one of the first COVID-19 vaccines. For agriculture, they develop technologies that protect crops from pests and coatings for seeds that help them grow better. This segment is all about using science to improve health and food production.
Industrial Specialties
This is the smallest of Croda's divisions and it sells byproducts from its other manufacturing processes. It provides ingredients for a wide range of industrial applications, such as lubricants that help machinery run smoothly and additives for coatings and polymers (plastics). This part of the business supports the main Consumer Care and Life Sciences segments by finding valuable uses for materials that would otherwise be waste.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on innovation, particularly in high-growth areas like sustainable ingredients and biotechnology (using biological systems to create products). They are also working to become more efficient by simplifying their product range and improving their supply chain (the network involved in getting products to customers). A major priority is to deepen relationships with customers by working closely with them to develop unique solutions to their challenges. The overall goal is to grow earnings (the company's profit) and improve returns for investors by focusing on these key areas.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $14.29 vs current price $21.16
Our most-likely fair value is $14.29 a share — about 32.4% below today's price of $21.16, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $778.5M. Interest coverage 9.2x.
Net debt
$778.47M
Interest coverage
9.21x
Croda International Plc's profit covers its interest bill about 9.2 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
COIHY
BASELINE
Croda International Plc
Total debt $1.06B Interest coverage 9.21x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $6.28B Interest coverage 3.68x -60% vs COIHY Carries about 2.5x less debt cushion than COIHY.
Total debt $13.92B Interest coverage 9.45x +3% vs COIHY Has roughly the same debt cushion as COIHY.
Total debt $2.00B Interest coverage 0.32x -96% vs COIHY Carries about 28.4x less debt cushion than COIHY.
Total debt $12.40B Interest coverage 1.09x -88% vs COIHY Carries about 8.4x less debt cushion than COIHY.
Total debt $4.40B Interest coverage 1.39x -85% vs COIHY Carries about 6.6x less debt cushion than COIHY.
What you should know
The case for and against COIHY
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 4.4% last year.
-
Returns 3.7% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 77.4% over 3 years.
-
Stock trades 14.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 21.3% to 16.1% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
54.26x
Forward P/E
—
P/B
2.01x
P/S
3.42x
EV/EBITDA
26.66x
PEG ratio
0.46x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
43.7%
Operating margin
16.1%
Net margin
4.6%
ROE
3.7%
ROA
2.2%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.36x
Current ratio
2.57x
Quick ratio
1.56x
Total debt
$1.06B
Total cash
$276.55M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$2.32B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-6.7%
EPS TTM
0.39
EPS 5Y CAGR
-54.3%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$385.94M
Free CF TTM
$224.42M
FCF margin
9.7%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
3.5%
Payout ratio
193.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-28