One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$283.86 our estimate vs market $52.58
Wall Street consensus: $74.47 (-73.8% lower than our fair-value estimate)
81% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
LyondellBasell Industries N.V.
LYB · NYQ · Basic Materials · Specialty Chemicals
Current price
$52.58
52-week range
$41.58 - $83.94
Market cap
$16.97B
Balance sheet
Stretched
1.71x Concerning
Net debt $11.70B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
3 Risks
2 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Reward Dividend yield is 7.8% with 16-year payout history.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 10.2% to 3.5% over 3 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -6.0% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
What this company does
LyondellBasell Industries N.V.
LyondellBasell is one of the world's largest plastics and chemical companies, creating the building blocks for countless products you use daily, from car parts to food wrap. It primarily earns money by selling these essential materials in massive quantities to other businesses, which then turn them into finished goods for consumers. Because its products are fundamental to so many industries, the company's performance often reflects the overall health of the global economy.
How the company got here
LyondellBasell was formed in 2007 when Basell Polyolefins, a European company, purchased the U.S.-based Lyondell Chemical Company. This merger created one of the world's largest plastics, chemicals, and refining companies. The company's roots go back to the 1950s with key discoveries in plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene. Shortly after the merger, the company faced significant debt and, impacted by the 2008 financial crisis, its U.S. operations filed for bankruptcy in 2009. It successfully emerged in 2010 with a stronger financial structure and has since focused on expanding its operations and investing in new technologies.
What it actually does
LyondellBasell is a chemical company that creates the basic building blocks for many products you see and use every day. Think of them as a company that makes the raw materials, like plastic pellets, that other companies buy to manufacture things. Their products end up in items like food packaging to keep your snacks fresh, parts that make cars lighter and more fuel-efficient, strong pipes for clean water, and even components in medical devices and electronics. They are one of the biggest producers of common plastics like polypropylene and polyethylene globally.
Olefins and Polyolefins—Americas
This is the company's largest segment, operating in North and South America. It produces olefins (like ethylene and propylene), which are basic chemicals that act as the fundamental ingredients for a huge variety of plastics and other chemical products. This division then uses those olefins to create polyolefins, which are the plastic pellets—specifically polyethylene and polypropylene—that get sold to other manufacturers. These plastics are used in everything from milk jugs and food containers to car parts and carpets.
Olefins and Polyolefins—Europe, Asia, International
This segment does the same thing as its Americas counterpart—producing basic chemicals and plastic pellets—but serves customers in Europe, Asia, and other international markets. It's a significant part of the business, making the foundational materials for countless consumer and industrial goods sold across the globe. Recently, the company has been adjusting its strategy in Europe, selling some of these assets to focus on more profitable areas. This allows them to concentrate on businesses with a stronger competitive advantage (a unique benefit that allows a company to outperform its rivals).
Intermediates and Derivatives
This part of the company takes basic chemicals and transforms them into more complex substances, known as intermediates and derivatives. For example, it produces propylene oxide, a key ingredient for making things like the foam in your mattress or car seats, and oxyfuels, which are additives that help gasoline burn cleaner in your car. These products are a crucial link in the supply chain (the entire process of making and selling goods, from getting raw materials to delivering the final product to a customer) for many industries, including automotive, construction, and cleaning products.
Advanced Polymer Solutions
This segment creates more specialized and high-performance plastic products. Instead of just making basic plastic pellets, it creates custom blends and compounds by mixing base plastics with other materials to give them specific properties like extra strength, heat resistance, or specific colors. These customized materials are used in applications where standard plastics won't work, such as complex automotive parts, electrical components, and durable sporting equipment. This division works closely with customers to develop tailored solutions for their products.
Technology
This is the company's innovation hub, where it develops and licenses out its chemical and plastic manufacturing processes to other companies. Think of it like selling a recipe and providing the special ingredients; LyondellBasell not only licenses the technology but also sells the necessary catalysts (special substances that speed up chemical reactions to make production more efficient). This segment makes LyondellBasell a global leader in polyolefin technologies, allowing other manufacturers around the world to use its proven methods for making high-quality plastics.
What management is betting on now
Management's strategy is focused on three main areas: growing its core businesses, building a profitable business in recycling and low-carbon products, and improving overall performance. The company is investing heavily in what it calls a circular economy, which means turning plastic waste into a valuable resource for new products. They are building plants that use advanced recycling technology to break down used plastics and create new materials, aiming to produce and sell a significant amount of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030. This strategy aims to meet growing customer demand for sustainable solutions while also creating new, profitable lines of business.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q2
$864.00M
FY2024 Q3
$302.00M
FY2024 Q4
$1.41B
FY2025 Q1
$-1.06B
FY2025 Q2
$-188.00M
FY2025 Q3
$577.00M
FY2025 Q4
$1.06B
FY2026 Q1
$-538.00M
Revenue
$7.20B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
0.38
Operating cash flow
$-269.00M
Free cash flow
$-538.00M
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Sources
Revenue
$7.09B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
-0.45
Operating cash flow
$1.51B
Free cash flow
$1.06B
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Sources
Revenue
$7.73B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
-2.77
Operating cash flow
$983.00M
Free cash flow
$577.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$7.66B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
0.34
Operating cash flow
$351.00M
Free cash flow
$-188.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$7.68B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
0.54
Operating cash flow
$-579.00M
Free cash flow
$-1.06B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$9.50B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
-1.86
Operating cash flow
$1.92B
Free cash flow
$1.41B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$10.32B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
1.75
Operating cash flow
$670.00M
Free cash flow
$302.00M
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Sources
Revenue
$10.56B
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
2.82
Operating cash flow
$1.35B
Free cash flow
$864.00M
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $283.86 vs current price $52.58
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $74.47 (-73.8% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $283.86 a share — about 439.9% above today's price of $52.58, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $11.7B. Interest coverage 1.7x.
Net debt
$11.70B
Interest coverage
1.71x
LyondellBasell Industries N.V.'s profit covers its interest bill about 1.7 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 2 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
LYB
BASELINE
LyondellBasell Industries N.V.
Total debt $14.36B Interest coverage 1.71x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $19.63B Interest coverage 0.18x -89% vs LYB Carries about 9.3x less debt cushion than LYB.
Total debt $3.22B Interest coverage 2.75x +61% vs LYB Carries about 1.6x more debt cushion than LYB.
Total debt $5.45B Interest coverage 4.37x +156% vs LYB Carries about 2.6x more debt cushion than LYB.
Total debt $12.90B Interest coverage 1.09x -36% vs LYB Carries about 1.6x less debt cushion than LYB.
Total debt $2.49B Interest coverage -0.27x -100% vs LYB This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with LYB.
What you should know
The case for and against LYB
2 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
-
Dividend yield is 7.8% with 16-year payout history.
Risks
-
Operating margin compressed from 10.2% to 3.5% over 3 years.
-
Return on equity was -6.0% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Net debt grew 1.5% 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)
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Forward P/E
7.64x
P/B
1.69x
P/S
0.57x
EV/EBITDA
12.96x
PEG ratio
1.53x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
9.2%
Operating margin
3.5%
Net margin
-2.7%
ROE
-6.0%
ROA
1.7%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.41x
Current ratio
1.54x
Quick ratio
0.82x
Total debt
$14.36B
Total cash
$2.66B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$29.67B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-10.1%
EPS TTM
-2.12
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$2.57B
Free CF TTM
$384.00M
FCF margin
1.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
7.8%
Payout ratio
1,146.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-06-01