One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$0.06 our estimate vs market $5.76
Wall Street consensus: $6.69 (11,842.6% higher than our fair-value estimate)
10195% above our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Orion S.A.
OEC · NYQ · Basic Materials · Specialty Chemicals
Current price
$5.76
52-week range
$4.34 - $10.04
Market cap
$325.08M
Balance sheet
Distressed
1.63x Concerning
Net debt $1.10B. 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 0.9% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -22.7% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
- Risk Net debt grew 10.3% over 3 years.
What this company does
Orion S.A.
Orion S.A. makes carbon black, a fine black powder used to make tires more durable and to add color to products like inks and plastics. The company generates most of its revenue (money earned from sales) from selling this material to tire manufacturers and other industrial customers. Because carbon black is a key ingredient for the automotive and manufacturing sectors, Orion's business often reflects the overall health of the global economy.
How the company got here
Orion's story starts over 160 years ago in Germany with a small chemical shop. Through many changes, including being part of other large chemical companies, it was established as Orion Engineered Carbons in 2011. In 2014, it became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, allowing anyone to buy a small piece of the company. The company officially changed its name to Orion S.A. in June 2023.
What it actually does
Orion makes a material called carbon black, which is a fine black powder or pellet made from carbon. Think of it as a high-tech version of soot. Companies buy this material to improve their own products in various ways. It's used to make tires stronger, to provide the black color in inks and coatings, to help conduct electricity in batteries and cables, and to protect plastics from sun damage.
Specialty Carbon Black
This part of the business creates high-performance carbon black for specialized uses. Customers in the coatings, printing ink, and plastics industries pay for these products to achieve specific colors and functionalities in their products. This segment also produces highly pure and conductive (able to carry an electric current) grades for more advanced applications like lithium-ion batteries and high-voltage cables. While it's not the largest part of the company by volume, it's a key area of growth and profitability because the products are more customized and command higher prices.
Rubber Carbon Black
This is the larger-volume part of Orion's business, focused on the rubber industry. The primary customers are tire manufacturers who use carbon black to reinforce the rubber, making tires more durable and resistant to wear and tear. It's also sold to makers of other rubber goods, like belts, hoses, and gaskets used in cars and construction. This business is about producing large quantities efficiently to serve major industrial customers.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on growing the more profitable Specialty Carbon Black business. A major priority is developing materials for electrification, such as conductive additives for electric vehicle batteries and high-voltage cables for modernizing power grids. They are also investing in sustainability, creating bio-circular products that reduce the carbon footprint and improving energy efficiency at their plants. At the same time, they are carefully managing costs by closing less efficient production lines to improve free cash flow (the cash a company has left after paying for its day-to-day operations and investments in equipment).
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$-78.80M
FY2024 Q4
$23.50M
FY2025 Q1
$-28.80M
FY2025 Q2
$11.50M
FY2025 Q3
$27.90M
FY2025 Q4
$44.20M
FY2026 Q1
$-48.50M
FY2026 Q2
$1.90M
Revenue
$500.90M
Net income
$1.80M
Diluted EPS
0.03
Operating cash flow
$27.30M
Free cash flow
$1.90M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$459.50M
Net income
$-9.90M
Diluted EPS
-0.18
Operating cash flow
$-12.40M
Free cash flow
$-48.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$411.70M
Net income
$-21.10M
Diluted EPS
-0.36
Operating cash flow
$92.90M
Free cash flow
$44.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$450.90M
Net income
$-67.10M
Diluted EPS
-1.20
Operating cash flow
$68.80M
Free cash flow
$27.90M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$466.40M
Net income
$9.00M
Diluted EPS
0.16
Operating cash flow
$53.70M
Free cash flow
$11.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$477.70M
Net income
$9.10M
Diluted EPS
0.16
Operating cash flow
$400.00K
Free cash flow
$-28.80M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$434.20M
Net income
$17.20M
Diluted EPS
0.31
Operating cash flow
$94.50M
Free cash flow
$23.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$463.40M
Net income
$-20.20M
Diluted EPS
-0.35
Operating cash flow
$-30.90M
Free cash flow
$-78.80M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $0.06 vs current price $5.76
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $6.69 (11,842.6% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $0.06 a share — about 99.0% away from today's price of $5.76, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $1.1B. Interest coverage 1.6x.
Net debt
$1.10B
Interest coverage
1.63x
Orion S.A.'s profit covers its interest bill about 1.6 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 4 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
OEC
BASELINE
Orion S.A.
Total debt $1.15B Interest coverage 1.63x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $324.00K Interest coverage -346.34x -100% vs OEC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with OEC.
Total debt $774.77M Interest coverage 0.11x -93% vs OEC Carries about 14.2x less debt cushion than OEC.
Total debt $1.03B Interest coverage 0.67x -59% vs OEC Carries about 2.4x less debt cushion than OEC.
Total debt $1.00B Interest coverage 3.32x +104% vs OEC Carries about 2.0x more debt cushion than OEC.
Total debt $588.60M Interest coverage -0.79x -100% vs OEC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with OEC.
What you should know
The case for and against OEC
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 0.9% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
-
Dividend yield is 1.4% with 13-year payout history.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -22.7% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Net debt grew 10.3% over 3 years.
-
Operating margin compressed from 9.7% to 4.3% 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
17.01x
P/B
0.86x
P/S
0.18x
EV/EBITDA
6.95x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
18.4%
Operating margin
4.3%
Net margin
-5.3%
ROE
-22.7%
ROA
2.2%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
3.02x
Current ratio
1.02x
Quick ratio
0.53x
Total debt
$1.15B
Total cash
$50.80M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.82B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
4.0%
EPS TTM
-1.70
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$176.60M
Free CF TTM
$54.80M
FCF margin
3.0%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.4%
Payout ratio
30.7%
Last ex-div date
2026-07-06