One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$-1.86 our estimate vs market $5.45
Wall Street consensus: $6.31 (-439.3% lower than our fair-value estimate)
393% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Orion S.A.
OEC · NYQ · Basic Materials · Specialty Chemicals
Current price
$5.45
52-week range
$4.34 - $8.64
Market cap
$307.32M
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 and sells carbon black, which is a key ingredient in things like tires, coatings, and batteries. The money they make mainly comes from selling these carbon black products to different industries around the world. Understanding how much they sell and at what price (their margins, or the percent of each sales dollar left after day-to-day business costs) is important because it shows how profitable their business is.
How the company got here
Orion S.A. has a long industrial history, with its current corporate structure tracing back to 2011 when it was acquired by private equity and later went public in 2014. However, its roots in carbon black production extend much further, originating from legacy European chemical operations. The company was formerly known as Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. and officially changed its name to Orion S.A. in June 2023. Orion's journey has involved adapting to market changes and focusing on its core business of producing carbon black, a material with diverse industrial applications.
What it actually does
Orion S.A. is a global manufacturer of carbon black, which is a fine black powder made from carbon. This material is essential for giving various products specific qualities, such as color, strength, and electrical conductivity. Orion produces carbon black to meet precise customer specifications for a wide range of industries, including tires, coatings, inks, plastics, and batteries. The company operates a global network of production facilities and innovation centers to serve its diverse customer base.
Rubber Carbon Black
The Rubber Carbon Black segment is a significant part of Orion's business, generating a substantial portion of its revenue. This type of carbon black is primarily used to reinforce rubber, making it stronger and more durable. Its main applications are in the manufacturing of tires for vehicles and various mechanical rubber goods. These rubber goods are used in a wide array of industries, including automotive production, construction, and even in certain food, consumer, and medical products. Orion offers different grades of rubber carbon black, such as high-reinforcing and semi-reinforcing types, under brands like ECORAX.
Specialty Carbon Black
The Specialty Carbon Black segment focuses on higher-value carbon black products that offer more technical differentiation and command better profit margins. These specialized carbon blacks are used for their unique properties as pigments and performance additives. Applications include providing color and enhancing the performance of paints and coatings, as well as being used in printing inks, plastics, and fibers. A growing area within this segment is conductive carbon black, which is crucial for applications like batteries, polymers, and advanced coatings.
What management is betting on now
Orion's management is focused on increasing the proportion of higher-margin specialty carbon black products in its sales mix. This strategy involves developing new grades of specialty carbon black and focusing on applications that offer better profitability and customer loyalty. The company is also investing in growth areas like conductive additives for batteries and energy storage systems, recognizing their importance in the global shift towards electrification. Orion is also working to improve the efficiency and reliability of its production lines, including rationalizing underperforming assets to enhance free cash flow generation.
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 $-1.86 vs current price $5.45
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $6.31 (-439.3% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $-1.86 a share — about 134.1% away from today's price of $5.45, 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 1.5% 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)
—
Forward P/E
16.44x
P/B
0.81x
P/S
0.17x
EV/EBITDA
6.86x
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
-1.71
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
1.5%
Payout ratio
30.7%
Last ex-div date
2026-12-11