AVNT

Never miss an important update on your stock portfolio and cut through the noise. Over 7 million investors trust Simply Wall St to stay informed where it matters for FREE. Avient stock has delivered a 37.9% gain year to date, while the latest Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value estimate points to further upside, leaving investors to weigh that signal against a more neutral read from traditional earnings multiples. Year to date, Avient is up 37.9%, which puts more pressure on today’s buyers to judge whether that move already reflects the company’s fundamentals. Future cash generation and margin resilience can support the current valuation, while any setback in cash flow timing or balance sheet flexibility may quickly change how sustainable this price level looks. Avient scores 4 out of 6 on our valuation checks, which points to a mixed picture rather than a clear bargain or clear overvaluation. The issue now is whether the current US$43.73 share price already reflects Avient’s intrinsic value or if the Discounted Cash Flow estimate, which suggests the stock trades at about a 32.4% discount, still offers room for upside. Avient delivered 27.7% returns over the last year. See how this stacks up to the rest of the Chemicals industry. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) approach looks at the cash Avient can generate for shareholders over time and discounts it back to today. For Avient, the model uses latest twelve month free cash flow of about $181.7 million and assumes that cash flows continue to grow from this base rather than contract. On those assumptions, the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity model points to an estimated intrinsic value of about $64.71 per share. Compared with the current $43.73 share price, that implies Avient trades at roughly a 32.4% discount. The cash flow profile here is not extreme or speculative, which means the gap is mainly about how much value investors assign to steady growth in future free cash flow. Overall, the DCF work suggests Avient stock appears undervalued relative to the cash flows currently built into the model. Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests Avient is undervalued by 32.4%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio, or discover 50 more high quality undervalued stocks. Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for Avient. P/E is a useful lens for Avient because earnings quality and consistency matter a lot in the Chemicals industry. Avient currently trades on a P/E of about 23.6x, which is in line with the wider industry average of roughly 23.6x and below a peer group average of about 29.2x. That already suggests the stock is not priced at a clear premium to its sector, even after the recent share price move. The Fair P/E Ratio that blends Avient’s growth profile, margins, size and risk comes out at about 21.9x. This is only slightly below the current market multiple, which points to a modest premium rather than a large gap. Taken together, the P/E checks imply that Avient is neither extremely cheap nor stretched on earnings compared with its own fundamentals and sector benchmarks. Overall, Avient appears roughly fairly valued on the P/E multiple. See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. Simply Wall St Narratives for Avient pick up where the valuation checks leave off and explain the specific future paths for Avient's growth, margins and earnings that would need to occur for the stock to be worth materially more or less than today's price. Rather than stopping at a single model output or ratio, they present the underlying assumptions in plain terms so you can track how the real business compares with them over time on the Community page. Avient investors are weighing two very different community views that hinge on how much of the portfolio reshaping and margin work is already reflected in the share price. Bull case: 12% undervalued Read the full Bull Case to see why Avient could be undervalued Bear case: roughly fairly valued Read the full Bear Case to see why Avient could be overvalued Do you think there's more to the story for Avient? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying! The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) work suggests Avient carries an intrinsic value estimate that sits meaningfully above the current share price, while the P/E view says the stock is priced roughly in line with sector norms. Together with the mixed outcome from broader valuation checks, that leaves Avient looking like a potential discount that is not without qualifiers. The key question from here is whether the margin and cash flow improvements discussed earlier prove durable enough to close the gap, or whether the current price already reflects the realistic outcome for the business. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include AVNT. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. 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Avient Corporation AVNT reported adjusted earnings of 96 cents per share for the second quarter of 2026, up 20% from 80 cents a year ago. The bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 89 cents by 7.9%. Better-than-expected organic volume growth aided the outperformance. Sales increased 5.8% year over year to $917 million and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $895.3 million by 2.4%. Organic sales rose 4.3%, while favorable foreign exchange contributed 1.5%. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 110 basis points to a record 18.3%. Avient Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Avient Corporation Quote Color, Additives and Inks sales increased 6.6% year over year to $574.2 million from $538.6 million. Segment EBITDA rose 10.5% to $124.5 million from $112.7 million. The segment’s EBITDA margin improved to approximately 21.7% from 20.9% in the year-ago quarter. Specialty Engineered Materials generated sales of $343.9 million, up 4.3% from $329.7 million a year earlier. Segment EBITDA climbed 21.1% to $75.8 million from $62.6 million. EBITDA margin expanded to approximately 22% from 19%, indicating significant profitability improvement in the segment. Avient ended the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $425.6 million. Total debt was approximately $1.88 billion. For the first six months of 2026, net cash provided by operating activities was $59.3 million. Capital expenditures were $41.3 million. Management expects cash generation to support both growth investments and further balance-sheet improvement. Avient raised its full-year 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to $3.10-$3.25 per share from the previous range of $2.93-$3.17. The revised range implies adjusted earnings growth of 10-15% over 2025. Management cited year-to-date performance and visibility into third-quarter demand in raising its expectations. The company also increased its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to $575-$603 million. AVNT expects to repay $100-$150 million of debt during 2026, including the $50 million repaid in the second quarter. Management remains focused on targeted investments in prioritized growth portfolios while pursuing continued earnings growth and balance-sheet improvement. Shares of Avient have gained 25.5% in the past year against the 4.3% growth in the industry. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research AVNT currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Ashland Inc.’s ASH adjusted earnings were $1.02 per share for the fiscal third quarter, down around 2% from the year-ago quarter’s figure of $1.04. The bottom line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.03. For fiscal 2026, Ashland reaffirmed sales guidance of $1.835-$1.870 billion and adjusted EBITDA outlook of $385-$400 million. Huntsman Corporation HUN posted break-even earnings per share on an adjusted basis for the second quarter compared with a loss of 20 cents in the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings was pegged at 6 cents per share. HUN expects to remain focused on additional price increases and cost-reduction initiatives to offset rising and volatile energy and crude oil-related costs, particularly in Europe. Olin Corporation’s OLN second-quarter adjusted earnings were 7 cents per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. For the third quarter, Olin expects adjusted EBITDA in the range of $160 million to $200 million. OLN expects its Chemical businesses’ results to be comparable with second-quarter levels as lower operating rates at the Freeport vinyl chloride monomer facility and weaker ethylene dichloride pricing offset anticipated stronger caustic soda volumes. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Avient Corporation (AVNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ashland Inc. (ASH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Huntsman Corporation (HUN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Olin Corporation (OLN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET Investor Relations - Patrick Davis Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer - Dr. Ashish Khandpur Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer - Joe Di Salvo Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Avient Corporation webcast to discuss the company's second quarter 2026 results. My name is Michelle, and I will be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the conference over to Patrick Davis from Avient's Investor Relations team. Please go ahead. Patrick Davis: Thank you, and good morning to everyone joining us on the call today. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that statements made during this webcast may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements will give current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not guarantees of future performance. They're based on management's expectation and involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. We encourage you to review our most recent reports, including our 10-K or any applicable amendments for the complete discussion of these factors and other risks that may affect our future results. During the discussion today, the company will use both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the presentation posted in the Investor Relations section of the Avient website, where the company describes the non-GAAP measures and provides a reconciliation for historical non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. A replay of this call will be available on our website. Information to access the replay is listed in today's press release, which is available at avient.com in the Investor Relations section. On the call today is our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ashish Khandpur; and Joe Di Salvo, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. I will now hand the call over to Ashish to begin. Ashish Khandpur: Thank you, Patrick, and good morning, everyone. I want to begin by acknowledging the hard work of the entire Avient team and thank them for delivering a strong quarter, which was a story of successful execution, managing inflation and navigating supply chain disruptions. Our team continues to perform with discipline, poise and determination under a very dynamic and volatile environment. In the second quarter, our team delivered $0.96 of adjusted EPS, $0.09 ahead of expectations, driven by better-than-expected volume growth. Organic sales grew 4.3% with double-digit increase in adjusted EBITDA year-over-year. By remaining close to our customers, we delivered profitable growth across the portfolio. Market share gains, new product innovations and pricing actions contributed to positive organic sales, including volume growth in both business segments. Asia was a particular standout, growing organic sales 18% over the prior year quarter, driven by secular tailwinds in electronics and high-performance computing as well as new business gains in functional additives. Both business segments showed double-digit organic growth in Asia. Operating leverage from revenue growth, combined with our continued focus on company-wide productivity initiatives, drove Q2 adjusted EBITDA margins to a record 18.3%, an expansion of 110 basis points year-over-year. These results contributed to 20% adjusted EPS growth year-over-year, validating the success of our strategy while also demonstrating the consistency of our team's operational execution. Strong cash flow generation in the quarter enabled debt paydown of $50 million as we continue to prioritize strengthening our balance sheet. Our first half results shown on the right-hand side of the slide, reflect the compounding power of our business model, where 1.2% organic sales growth and 70 basis points of margin expansion generated 4.7% adjusted EBITDA growth and 9.1% adjusted EPS growth, excluding the impact of foreign currency translation. The underlying demand environment continues to vary by end market, but our strategy and execution are enabling us to outperform those conditions in many areas. Let me walk through the trends we are seeing across our businesses. Packaging, our largest end market, representing 23% of company sales, grew double digits in the second quarter. Along with solid pricing execution, we continue to see growth from innovation and new business wins. We are seeing strong customer interest in our non-PFAS polymer processing aids for personal health and beauty and food packaging applications as well as continued growth in electronics. Given the strength of our project pipeline, we expect our packaging business to keep the growth momentum in the second half of the year. In consumer, demand trends are stabilizing. Sales grew mid-single digits in the second quarter, driven by the U.S. and Asia and for both consumer discretionary and staples submarkets. At the same time, our global key account prioritization and focus on winning business with large local Asia customers continue to create share gains and business growth for us. We expect growth to continue in the second half, supported by improving market demand, ongoing share gains and favorable comparisons as the year progresses. As we mentioned last quarter, demand in Defense remains healthy, supported by a strong project pipeline spanning both the United States and Europe. After a slower start in the year in the first quarter, activity picked up in the second quarter, where our defense business grew even against a strong comparison of 19% growth in the second quarter of 2025. We expect this business to grow mid- to high-single digits for the year. Building and construction continued its strong performance in the second quarter with double-digit growth driven by share wins and new business development. This business is benefiting from data center and broader infrastructure investment trends as well as new application development by our teams for composite lightweighting for residential markets. We expect the strong momentum to continue in the second half of the year. Our healthcare business grew double digits in each of the prior 2 years. As we highlighted in our last earnings call, we are seeing some rebalancing of inventory levels by our customers, especially for drug delivery and remote monitoring devices. While this dynamic weighed on first half results, the underlying demand and secular trends supporting growth remain intact. Our teams continue to build a strong project pipeline, working closely with leading pharmaceutical and medical device and equipment companies. We expect growth to return in the second half, led by demand strength, especially in the medical devices and equipment applications. Industrial also improved in the second quarter, returning to modest growth led by strength in Asia. With more favorable comparisons ahead, we expect that growth momentum to continue through the balance of the year. Transportation demand remains soft, reflecting lower vehicle production rates and weaker demand in marine applications. We do not expect this trend to change in the third quarter or perhaps for the entire second half of the year. In energy and telecom, demand trends continue to improve, supporting our expectation for growth in second half of the year. Within telecom, we are seeing increasing activity tied to high-performance computing and electronic applications. Our energy business is expected to benefit from electrical infrastructure projects in the United States. We expect both energy and telecom to grow high single digits to double digits in the third quarter. Overall, we are encouraged by the improving demand trends across much of our portfolio. Combined with continued execution of our strategy through focus on customers, innovation, commercial excellence and targeted share wins, these trends support our confidence in our updated full-year guidance. Importantly, much of our progress in first half was driven by factors within our control rather than being dependent on a broader macro recovery. That focus on execution has enabled us to deliver consistent improvements across the business despite a volatile operating environment. As we update our outlook for the year, we also think it is important to step back and look at the broader picture since we adopted our new strategy beginning in early 2024. This slide highlights the financial outcomes our strategy has delivered over the past 3 years and the progress we have made in building a stronger, more resilient business at Avient. We have systematically expanded margins, grown earnings, generated strong cash flow and strengthened our balance sheet each year, all while continuing to invest in innovation and our prioritized growth vectors. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy, the compounding power of our business model and our ability to drive operational performance through actions within our control even amid volatile and uncertain market conditions. A good example is Europe, where we have been executing a focused strategy to improve profitability by streamlining structure, reducing complexity, driving productivity and operational discipline and executing portfolio actions. As a result, EMEA adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to improve by more than 400 basis points from 2023 to 2026, reaching more than 18% with systematic improvement each year along the way. This brings the region's margins in line with the broader portfolio and demonstrates our ability to create value even in more challenging demand environments. Importantly, these results are not driven by any single initiative. They reflect the combined impact of customer focus, innovation, portfolio management and targeted share gains with key accounts while collaborating across our 2 business segments to represent one Avient to our customers. Innovation remains a critical component of our growth strategy, and we believe there remains substantial opportunity ahead as our commercialization and innovation capabilities continue to mature. The next slide highlights how we are leveraging innovation and customer collaboration to capture attractive growth opportunities in high-value applications that intersect with important secular trends across our prioritized markets. We recently launched a new range of dielectric materials under our Preperm portfolio, specifically for humanoid robots and intelligent driving vehicles. Robots and autonomous cars are increasingly reliant on their radar systems to detect and respond quickly to their surroundings, other cars, pedestrians and objects. Traditionally, radar housings or radomes have relied on glass-fiber-reinforced materials. However, these materials distort signals at higher frequencies, typical of these new and emerging applications and are susceptible to warpage during manufacturing, resulting in lower yields and higher production costs. Preperm materials are designed to offer extremely low loss or signal distortion in higher electromagnetic frequencies and are preferred by robot and car radar manufacturers for enabling cleaner signal transmission at higher rates and low latency delays. In addition to meeting and exceeding customer requirements on performance, Preperm materials also provide easier manufacturability with greater impact resistance, low warpage and laser assembly compatibility. We are currently developing radome solutions for various humanoid robot and autonomous vehicle radar manufacturers, customizing properties to best fit their applications and easily adapting to their existing manufacturing processes. We continue to expand this materials platform for a variety of applications and manufacturing processes supporting this fast-growing area. Now I would like to turn it over to Joe to cover our second quarter financial results and outlook. Giuseppe Di Salvo: Thank you, Ashish. The innovation example you just highlighted reflects how we are translating our capabilities into commercial wins for value creation across the portfolio. With that context, let me walk through our second quarter segment results. Color, Additives and Inks delivered a strong quarter, generating 5% organic sales growth and 9% adjusted EBITDA growth, excluding the impact of foreign currency translation. Through innovation and targeted new business wins, we continue to expand our position with existing customers while capturing attractive new growth opportunities. The team also delivered excellent commercial and operational execution, remaining highly responsive to customer needs while proactively managing inflationary pressures and supply chain challenges. As a result, the combination of volume-driven revenue growth, favorable mix, pricing execution and ongoing productivity initiatives generated meaningful operating leverage, expanding adjusted EBITDA margin 80 basis points to 21.7% and segment adjusted EBITDA of $125 million. Specialty Engineered Materials delivered 3% organic sales growth in the quarter, driven by continued strength in high-performance computing, electronics and infrastructure-related applications, all of which are benefiting from attractive secular growth trends. We also saw double-digit growth in consumer sales during the quarter, driven by stabilizing demand and new business wins with global OEMs in personal care and electronics. Defense also remained a contributor to growth, particularly in the U.S., where project activity improved following delays associated with the government shutdown earlier this year. The combination of growth in these high-value applications contributing to favorable mix and productivity initiatives resulted in adjusted EBITDA of $76 million, an increase of 20% compared to the prior year. Margin expansion of 310 basis points also benefited from lapping of approximately $3 million of planned maintenance expense incurred in the second quarter of 2025. While that maintenance expense provided a meaningful benefit to the year-over-year margin comparison, underlying profitability trends remain healthy, and we expect continued margin expansion in the second half. Turning to regional performance. I believe that the first to second quarter sequential trends provide the best indication of current business momentum. As many of you know, the first and second quarters are typically fairly comparable from a seasonal demand perspective. Against this backdrop, we delivered 8% sequential organic revenue growth globally. While pricing actions contributed to this performance, what is particularly encouraging is the growth in both Asia and United States exceeded the impact of pricing, indicating improving underlying demand and continued market share gains. Asia grew 20% sequentially, while the United States and Canada increased 7% sequentially, driven by strength in both the CAI and SEM business segments. Europe and Latin America also delivered positive sequential growth of 3% and 12%, respectively. With that as context, let me turn to our updated financial guidance for 2026. We are raising our full year guidance of adjusted EBITDA, EPS and free cash flow. We now expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $575 million to $603 million, adjusted EPS to be in the range of $3.10 to $3.25 per share and free cash flow to be in the range of $210 million to $230 million. The updated outlook reflects our first half performance and the momentum we are carrying forward into the second half of the year. While our outlook incorporates continued macroeconomic uncertainty, including inflation and geopolitical developments, we remain confident in our ability to deliver within the guidance range based on our team's execution, customer engagement and current business momentum. We also updated our capital expenditure outlook to a range of $120 million to $130 million compared to our prior expectation of $140 million. This change primarily reflects the timing of certain capital projects and does not change our commitment to investing in our prioritized growth portfolios. Even at the updated level, our capital expenditures are expected to be above the $107 million invested in 2025, driven by strategic growth investments. In addition, our strong cash flow generation continues to support balance sheet improvement. During the second quarter, we repaid $50 million of debt, bringing our total debt reduction over the last 12 months to $200 million. Looking ahead, for the full year of 2026, we expect to repay a total of $100 million to $150 million of debt, which is inclusive of the $50 million paid in the second quarter, supporting our expectation for net leverage to exit the year in the range of 2.2 to 2.4x. Lastly, for the third quarter, we expect adjusted EPS of approximately $0.80 per share, representing growth of 14% versus the prior year quarter. With that, we will now move to the Q&A portion of today's call. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Emily Fusco: This is Emily Fusco on for Dave. Maybe just if you could, of the organic growth, how much was volume versus price and just kind of give some more color by segment. Ashish Khandpur: Yes. So Emily, the growth was at 4.3% organic growth total and about 1/4 of that was volume and 3/4 was price. But I think the more important thing is as we go from Q2 to Q4, that ratio of volume to price goes to -- flip-flops to almost 70% volume and 30% price in Q4 and then Q3 is somewhere in between. So we are seeing good volume growth coming through. And obviously, as we said earlier in our second -- first quarter earnings call, we will be net price benefit every quarter, and that continues to be the case on the price side. Emily Fusco: Got it. Okay. And on pricing, once raws come down or maybe return somewhere near pre-conflict level, how much of that price do you expect to retain? Ashish Khandpur: Yes. I mean our teams have shown that we can keep the price longer and retain it. This happened after COVID situation, and we don't -- there's always some cases where the pricing plays a role in business negotiation, but we don't expect any material amount of price to go back, and we try to -- we will -- we have confidence we can maintain it. We do see still a lot of uncertainty and some RMs are still moving. And so things haven't really changed so much from a certainty point of view and our customers understand that. So we have pretty high confidence we can keep the price. Again, we work with our customers not to take any extra price, but also want to make sure that we are able to pass on any case of inflation that we are seeing through and hopefully do a little better than that. Operator: And our next question is going to come from Frank Mitsch with Fermium Research. Frank Mitsch: Nice results. Ashish, given the order -- the magnitude of the upside that you posted here in the second quarter, a lot obviously went right since we spoke on May 7. I was wondering if you could let us know what the 2 or 3 biggest surprises that led to that big upside for the second quarter. Ashish Khandpur: Yes, Frank, I mean, I think the biggest piece was the volume growth. If you remember, there was a question in our earnings call, which asked about Q2 volumes, and we were projecting between 1% to 2% volume negative in the quarter, and that turned out to be more like plus 1% positive, more or less. So essentially, that was the biggest reason that gave these results. The pricing came out exactly like our teams had projected and what we had thought we would execute. So not much surprises there. And FX was just a little bit favorable, but not as big as the volume part. So I think those were the 2 biggest things, if you say, volume and a little bit of FX. Frank Mitsch: Okay. Great. And on the volume side, did you get any sense -- or do you have any sense that the second quarter might have benefited from prebuy as pricing went up? Is there any sense that the underlying -- or do you believe that the demand you saw in the second quarter was underlying demand and no sense of any inventory building by your customers? Ashish Khandpur: Yes, Frank, we don't think there was much prebuying and that -- we're pretty confident of that. If anything, it will be very miniscule, which is always within error bars, $2 million, $3 million or something like that. Hard to say that part. But at a big level, we are not seeing that. And actually, we just got our July results, and we started the quarter as we had projected and pretty strong actually. So I think we don't believe there was any prebuying or at least to the level that would influence any results going forward. Operator: And the next question will come from Pete Osterland with Truist. Peter Osterland: I just wanted to start with the margin growth in Engineered Materials. It looks like very high incrementals there, even excluding the maintenance impact you called out. So I was just wondering, could you give us a sense of how much of that margin growth was end market mix versus productivity versus pricing? And where do you see segment margins going from here? Giuseppe Di Salvo: Pete, thanks. This is Joe. Thanks for the question. So the planned maintenance that we talked about had about 100 basis points benefit for the quarter. So the remaining 200 basis points is split between price/mix favorability in the quarter as well as net productivity gains. As we kind of get into the back half of the year, what we've assumed or modeled out is that the segment will be -- will expand margins around 100 basis points in the second half. Peter Osterland: Very helpful. And then I just wanted to ask, considering what looks like some moderation of expectations in certain growth vectors like healthcare, but then you've got strong momentum in data center infrastructure. I'm just trying to figure out, overall, how is your end market mix expected to impact margins in the second half and then maybe into next year? Ashish Khandpur: Maybe I'll take that. I think, first of all, we expect margin growth for Avient for total company, but also within each of the 2 business segments. So you should see that. And in first half, we are, as a company, up 70 basis points margin year-over-year. So that's one data point. And we expect that we will finish positive margin in both the business segments in the end of the year. With respect to the end market segment, just a little bit of flavor for you guys. We grew organic growth in 7 out of the 9 markets we play in, in Q2, and we expect 8 markets to grow in Q3. So we are seeing good demand coming from markets. It's volume-driven demand. As I said, our volumes will continue to increase as the quarters progress. So we are seeing momentum. But also some of our innovation and our share wins are part of that story as well. So it's the demand coming back, but also our teams winning new business and also the innovation part getting us into new areas, especially for these growth vectors that you mentioned. So last year, we finished our growth vectors in high-single digits. And while the rest of the business was flat to low -- flat to slightly negative, and I think this year, again, we expect the growth vectors to outperform the business, especially on the volume side, we will see because we are getting into new business wins and new markets with these growth vectors. So we are pretty bullish with respect to our margin expansion story, but also growing the business on the top line and the bottom line. Operator: And our next question will come from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Daniel Rizzo: It's Dan Rizzo on for Laurence. So you did -- ROIC was up to 9.6%, which is great. I thought a few years ago, you guys gave ROIC target. I don't know if that's true or not, but if it's not or even if it is, is there a target of what you think you can get to if things keep going the way they're going? Giuseppe Di Salvo: Dan, it's Joe Di Salvo. We gave a target probably back in 2018, which would have been a much different portfolio at the time. So prior to the Clariant acquisition and the Avient Protective Materials acquisition and the divestiture of 2 segments. So that was quite a bit a while ago. We have not given a target. We've been reporting on it as is the focus of the company as we want to continue to expand it and grow that. After doing the 2 acquisitions in 2020 and 2022, that took a step backwards. And so we've been focused on expanding, and you see that consistent performance over the last few years. Daniel Rizzo: Okay. Sorry, I just really dated myself. I didn't realize it was that long ago. But anyway, industrial was up, and you saw some volume improvement. I was wondering if that's more from new wins and just kind of more market penetration or if there's some restocking going on just after some softness. I guess my real question is how sustainable it is beyond maybe a quarter or 2? Ashish Khandpur: Yes. So industrial was largely a story out of Asia for Q2. But as we go into Q3 and Q4, the comps become very favorable from last year. And so the growth that we are projecting is both comps related but also volume related. In Asia, specifically, we saw a lot of demand in 3D printer business and things like that, which are newer trends and also areas like smart glasses, which is, again, upcoming trends. Our team are winning new businesses in these areas. But also as we look into the second half of the year, we are expecting Industrial to grow in United States as well. EMEA remains challenged still on the industrial side, but USAC is showing good growth in that area, and our teams are winning business there. So I think -- but the comps, for example, industrial was down 8% in Q3 of last year. So comps are very favorable, and that's the reason giving us confidence that year-over-year, we'll grow that business. Operator: And our next question is going to come from Mike Harrison with Seaport Research. Michael Harrison: Ashish, you called out the non-PFAS polymer processing aids as an important innovation in your packaging business. It sounds like you're getting some more commercial traction there. I'm just curious what portion of your customers are looking to move in this direction to remove PFAS? And are there any regions where there either currently is some regulatory push to make these changes or an expected regulatory change that would take PFAS out? Ashish Khandpur: Yes. So Mike, in Europe, especially in August of 2026, the expectation or maybe it's mandatory now is that anything that is used in food packaging would have -- would be non-PFAS. There should not be any PFAS added to that thing. Inherently, there is always some PFAS because of -- it's hard to get out of everything, but that we are not adding any PFAS to the processing of the material and so on and so forth. So that's the regulation. And so that's driving our non-PFAS business, especially for flexible packaging for food contact. But also we are seeing broader-based trend even when -- although it's not mandatory, but a lot of our -- especially multinational customers, multinational companies, which are doing global businesses, they are walking away or finding ways to get away from PFAS as much as they can ahead on their own. And so we are seeing non-PFAS getting traction. For example, we've highlighted an example last earnings call in personal beauty and healthcare business where it was being utilized in packaging some of the personal beauty products or personal care products. So not only food packaging, but also other forms of packaging depending on the standards set by the companies and regulation and nonregulation both driving the business. With respect to the number of customers, we are in trials with a whole bunch of customers. These things and qualifications take a long time as we have been highlighting. And the change of this magnitude is not trivial. You have to run this material for months on their production line. And so it's a big investment from the customer's point of view as well, and they want to be sure. So it's -- but once you are in, then you are qualified and then you can keep getting -- keep retaining that business. The moat is stronger for switching. So we are gaining business with customers. It's a small business right now, a few million dollars this year, but it is our first brand-new business in this area, and we expect it to continue to grow because of the trends that I just mentioned. Michael Harrison: All right. That's very helpful. And then I was just curious on the U.S. and Canada, you noted that organic sales were down 2% year-over-year. I assume the volumes were a little bit worse than that, but it sounds like maybe the sequential trends are improving. So can you help us understand -- I don't know if you can provide a look on kind of the May, June, July time frame. What kind of improvements are you seeing? And any color on what markets specifically are improving would be helpful. Ashish Khandpur: Yes. So you're right, volumes were down more than 2% in U.S. It was like almost 4% volume down for USAC in Q2. But as we are looking into Q3 and Q4, we expect volumes to be in the mid-single-digit range positive. And I think -- so we -- obviously, the trend -- as you said, it has been a trend that has been improving, and we are already seeing those results in July come through. So we expect pretty healthy volume-driven growth in the United States and Canada in the second half of the year. Operator: And our next question is going to come from Ghansham Panjabi with Baird. Ghansham Panjabi: Ashish, can you just give us a sense as to where you are in your pricing initiatives in context of the raw material spike earlier this year? And then specific to 2Q, how does that net out for price/cost in total? And the reason I'm asking is, obviously, EBITDA margin stepped up quite a bit at, what was it, 110 basis points in 2Q, and it was 20 basis points in 1Q. And I'm just curious as to whether the price/cost favorability was a big differential between the 2 quarters. Ashish Khandpur: Yes. I mean you're right, Ghansham. I mean we gave the price increases around May -- around March time frame and our teams moved fast on it. And so we started seeing results of it. So Q2, we were net price positive already. And the growth, almost 3%, 3.5% came from price. So price was a significant -- as we said, 1/4 of the growth came from the volume and 3/4 came from the price. As we go into Q3, we will see higher inflation play through the raw materials because of the timing of raw materials, but also higher price come through. So net-net, we would still be price positive in Q3 as well. And in Q4, the pricing effect will subside a little bit, but the volume part will take a bigger piece, as I mentioned earlier. So overall, for each of the quarters, we expect it to be net price positive for each of the quarters that -- for this year. But the price volume mix changes with price being the dominant growth driver in Q2 to volume being the dominant growth driver in Q4. Ghansham Panjabi: Okay. That makes sense. Obviously, a very complex operating backdrop. And then going back to 4Q guidance, you're being very specific with 3Q guidance as you have -- as you were for 2Q as well. But it's a very wide range, at least on an implied basis for 4Q. What's underlying that? Is it just your inventory destocking, your view on volumes? What's driving that big range for 4Q? Giuseppe Di Salvo: Ghansham, this is Joe. Good question. So first of all, the Q3 guidance is an approximate $0.80. So I wouldn't say that's locked in. It's based on our visibility for the quarter now. So we have the highest degree of confidence in this quarter out in front of us. But I'd still say there's a range associated with that approximate $0.80, plus or minus a few cents either way. And so I wouldn't put the entire $0.15 adjusted EPS range all in the fourth quarter for one point for starters, I guess. And then the second thing is, as you get into the fourth quarter, we do have less visibility, as I said, for sales and the order book at that point. And you also have year-end seasonality with holidays and how things could play out, as well as the potential for narrowing or maybe normalizing of the net price benefit as we get into the fourth quarter. And so we're leaving ourselves a little bit of a range there to ensure we account for that. Operator: And the next question comes from Abigail Eberts with Wells Fargo. Abigail Eberts: You called out data centers as a tailwind across both telco and building and construction. Can you give us a feel for the size of this opportunity for you? Ashish Khandpur: Yes, Abigail, for us, the SEM or the actual addressable opportunity with our current portfolio that is it's close to $1 billion for the data center and electronics part. That's just from high-performance computing and electronics. And then there's another $1 billion that is from an infrastructure piece, which is wire and cable and other pipe and fittings kind of businesses where we sell some of our products. So I think it's overall -- we like to see rather than breaking it as data center, we see this more of an electronics digital play, and it manifests everything from making the silicon chip to all the way to showing up in data centers in servers. So across that value chain, it's about $2 billion directly addressable opportunity for us. Our business is right now close to -- this year, we'll finish close to $100 million. We just started focusing in this area, but it's growing very fast. So for example, we have doubled our electronics business over the last 3 years. And this year, the electronics part is expected to finish close to $60 million. So we expect similar kind of doubling in the next 2 to 3 years, but also assuming that those kinds of growth rates of the industry is sustained. As you -- I know there's a lot of CapEx being put into this area, but we are a little bit behind in the value chain, further back up in the value chain. So we don't see that whole pie of trillions of dollars of CapEx being put into data centers. But we are trying to get a big piece of -- as big a piece of that as possible. And we are also trying to make our portfolio more relevant for that area, and we'll continue to grow more portfolio either organically or inorganically in that area in the future. Operator: And our last question will come from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Turner Hinrichs: This is Turner on for Vincent. Joe, you mentioned SEM should expand margins by 100 basis points in the second half. Is this half-over-half or year-over-year? And do you mind talking a little bit more about underlying assumptions between price/cost mix shift between different applications or end markets and volume leverage? Giuseppe Di Salvo: Yes. Thanks, Turner. So the 100 basis points is year-over-year is what I was referring to for the SEM segment. And it's going to be primarily driven from mix as well as some of the productivity benefits that we've been executing over the last 1.5 years or 2 years. And so if you look at their demand trends in the defense business, the defense was up low-single digits here in the first half of the year, but lapping tough comps where defense grew strong double digits last year. As we get into the back half of the year, we'll see a little greater growth year-over-year from defense as well as the continued momentum we talked about with electronics and high-performance computing, which are also higher-margin parts of the portfolio. So favorable mix and productivity benefits will continue to help the margin expansion trend, but at a lower degree, as I mentioned, about 100 basis points for the segment in the back half. Turner Hinrichs: Awesome. And as a follow-up, you all have previously said net leverage below 2.5x opens the door to buybacks and potentially M&A. Now that you're guiding to 2.2 to 2.4x, how are you thinking about the go-forward capital deployment between further debt paydown, buybacks or acquisitions? Ashish Khandpur: Yes. So Vincent (sic) [ Turner ], I mean, as you mentioned rightfully, we have been prioritizing debt reduction and strengthening our balance sheet, and we are getting close to the target range that we wanted that, and especially in this high interest rate environment. And so also our ROIC is getting in the right direction -- moving in the right direction, we have fair confidence we can continue to improve that. So that apart, we have been making organic growth investments. As you know, in our growth portfolio, we have been paying dividends, which have been priorities as well. And now I think as we get closer to our target leverage, we have more optionality and flexibility. We can continue to pay debt. We can buy our stock if we think it is undervalued. But we can also -- we have started thinking and looking at what we could add to our portfolio to become more relevant, especially to drive more growth and margin expansion. So all those 3 things become options right now based on where we are in our journey and how the business has gotten healthier, and we'll continue to do that. So at this point, I would just say that everything is on the table. We have started processes on all things, but nothing imminent that you can model right now. Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Avient, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Avient wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $403,337!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,334,946!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 958% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 214% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Avient (AVNT) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Avient Corporation recently reported second-quarter 2026 results, with sales rising to US$917.0 million from US$866.5 million and GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations increasing to US$0.70 from US$0.57 a year earlier, while adjusted EPS reached US$0.96 and revenue and earnings both surpassed analyst expectations. The company also delivered a record adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.3%, raised its full-year 2026 guidance for adjusted EPS, EBITDA and free cash flow, and continued to repay debt, supporting an investment case that now combines earnings growth, balance-sheet progress and an above-industry dividend yield. We’ll now consider how Avient’s raised full-year 2026 earnings guidance shapes its investment narrative for shareholders and prospective investors. Find 49 companies with promising cash flow potential yet trading below their fair value. To own Avient today, you have to believe the company can turn its recent operational momentum into durable earnings power while keeping its balance sheet and capital returns in good shape. The latest quarter, with higher sales, record adjusted EBITDA margins and raised 2026 guidance, reinforces the near term earnings growth story and helps explain the strong year to date share price move. It also slightly improves one of the key overhangs: debt that is not yet comfortably covered by operating cash flow, though recent repayments are a step in the right direction. At the same time, the business is still growing revenue at only a modest pace and carries a low return on equity, so the upgraded outlook does not remove execution risk if demand softens or margins slip. However, one issue around cash flow coverage and leverage is something investors should be aware of. Avient's shares have been on the rise but are still potentially undervalued by 32%. Find out what it's worth. Investors in the Simply Wall St Community currently contribute a single fair value estimate of US$66.79, implying meaningful upside from recent prices. Set that against Avient’s improving margins and guidance, but also its still modest revenue growth and cash flow coverage, and you can see why different market participants may reach very different conclusions about the stock’s longer term potential. Explore another fair value estimate on Avient - why the stock might be worth just $66.79! Disagree with existing narratives? Extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd, so go with your instincts. A great starting point for your Avient research is our analysis highlighting 4 key rewards and 1 important warning sign that could impact your investment decision. Our free Avient research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate Avient's overall financial health at a glance. Opportunities like this don't last. These are today's most promising picks. Check them out now: Uncover the next big thing with 20 elite penny stocks that balance risk and reward. AI is about to change healthcare. These 42 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10b in market cap - there's still time to get in early. Explore 26 top quantum computing companies leading the revolution in next-gen technology and shaping the future with breakthroughs in quantum algorithms, superconducting qubits, and cutting-edge research. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include AVNT. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

Interested in Avient Corporation? Here are five stocks we like better. Avient reported strong second-quarter results: Adjusted EPS rose 20% to $0.96, beating expectations by $0.09, while organic sales increased 4.3% and adjusted EBITDA margins reached a record 18.3%. Asia drove growth and segment profitability improved: Asian organic sales surged 18%, while both Color, Additives and Inks and Specialty Engineered Materials expanded margins through pricing, favorable mix, productivity and stronger demand in electronics and high-performance computing. The company raised its 2026 outlook and continued deleveraging: Avient now expects adjusted EBITDA of $575 million to $603 million, adjusted EPS of $3.10 to $3.25 and free cash flow of $210 million to $230 million; it repaid $50 million of debt in the quarter and plans to reduce debt by $100 million to $150 million for the year. Avient Stock: Manufacturing Play With Double-Digit Upside Avient (NYSE:AVNT) reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $0.96, which Chairman, President and CEO Ashish Khandpur said was $0.09 above expectations, as stronger-than-anticipated volume growth, pricing actions and productivity initiatives supported results. Organic sales increased 4.3% from the prior-year quarter, while adjusted EBITDA rose by double digits. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached a record 18.3%, up 110 basis points year over year, and adjusted EPS increased 20% from the prior-year period. The company also generated sufficient cash flow to repay $50 million of debt during the quarter. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth Khandpur said the results reflected “successful execution, managing inflation, and navigating supply chain disruptions” in what he characterized as a dynamic and volatile operating environment. He cited market-share gains, new product introductions and pricing as contributors to organic growth, including volume growth in both operating segments. Asia was a standout in the quarter, with organic sales rising 18% year over year, driven by electronics, high-performance computing and new functional-additives business. Both company segments posted double-digit organic growth in the region. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High Chief Financial Officer Joe Di Salvo said the company generated 8% sequential organic revenue growth globally from the first quarter to the second quarter. Asia grew 20% sequentially, while the U.S. and Canada increased 7%. Europe and Latin America posted sequential organic growth of 3% and 12%, respectively. While pricing contributed to the global performance, Di Salvo said growth in Asia and the U.S. and Canada exceeded the impact of pricing, which he said indicated improving underlying demand and continued share gains. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling During the question-and-answer session, Khandpur said approximately one-quarter of the company’s 4.3% second-quarter organic growth came from volume and three-quarters came from price. He expects the contribution to shift toward volume through the year, with volume accounting for nearly 70% of growth by the fourth quarter and price contributing about 30%. Khandpur said the company expects to remain net price positive in each quarter of 2026. He added that Avient does not expect a material reversal of the pricing it has implemented if raw-material costs decline, though pricing may factor into some customer negotiations. Color, Additives and Inks reported 5% organic sales growth and 9% adjusted EBITDA growth, excluding foreign-currency translation. Segment adjusted EBITDA totaled $125 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin rose 80 basis points to 21.7%. Di Salvo attributed the segment’s margin performance to volume-driven revenue growth, favorable product mix, pricing execution and productivity efforts. Specialty Engineered Materials posted 3% organic sales growth, supported by high-performance computing, electronics and infrastructure-related applications. The segment generated adjusted EBITDA of $76 million, up 20% from a year earlier, while margin expanded 310 basis points. Di Salvo said approximately 100 basis points of Specialty Engineered Materials’ margin expansion reflected the absence of about $3 million in planned maintenance expense incurred in the second quarter of 2025. The remaining expansion was split between price-mix benefits and productivity gains. The company expects the segment’s margin to improve by about 100 basis points year over year in the second half. Packaging, Avient’s largest end market at 23% of sales, grew at a double-digit rate in the second quarter. The company cited pricing, innovation and new business wins, including demand for non-PFAS polymer processing aids used in food, personal health and beauty packaging. Khandpur said European rules expected or required in August 2026 related to food packaging are supporting demand for non-PFAS processing solutions. He also said multinational customers are seeking to reduce PFAS use even where regulations do not require it. The business remains small, at several million dollars this year, but Avient expects it to grow as customer qualification programs advance. Consumer sales rose at a mid-single-digit rate, led by the U.S. and Asia. Building and construction delivered double-digit growth, aided by data-center and infrastructure investment as well as lightweight composite applications for residential markets. Defense activity improved during the quarter, and the company expects that business to grow at a mid- to high-single-digit rate for the year. Healthcare was affected in the first half by customer inventory rebalancing in drug-delivery and remote-monitoring devices, though Avient expects growth to return in the second half, particularly in medical devices and equipment. Industrial returned to modest growth, led by Asia, while transportation remained weak amid lower vehicle production and softer marine demand. Avient expects energy and telecom to grow at high-single-digit to double-digit rates in the third quarter, supported by high-performance computing, electronics and U.S. electrical-infrastructure projects. The company raised its full-year 2026 outlook for adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow. Avient now expects: Adjusted EBITDA of $575 million to $603 million; Adjusted EPS of $3.10 to $3.25 per share; Free cash flow of $210 million to $230 million; and Capital expenditures of $120 million to $130 million, reduced from a prior outlook of $140 million due primarily to project timing. For the third quarter, Avient forecast adjusted EPS of approximately $0.80 per share, representing 14% growth from the prior-year quarter. Di Salvo said the company has greater visibility into the third quarter than the fourth quarter, when year-end seasonality, holiday timing and potentially lower net price benefits could affect results. Avient repaid $50 million in debt during the second quarter, bringing debt reduction over the trailing 12 months to $200 million. The company expects total 2026 debt repayment of $100 million to $150 million and forecasts year-end net leverage of 2.2 times to 2.4 times. Khandpur said that approaching the company’s leverage target creates additional flexibility for capital deployment, including further debt reduction, share repurchases and acquisitions, though he said there was nothing imminent to model. Avient Corporation (NYSE: AVNT) is a global provider of specialized and sustainable polymer materials, delivering color, additive and engineered solutions to a wide range of industries. The company's core offerings include masterbatches, colorant systems, compounds and resins designed to enhance performance, aesthetics and environmental sustainability. Avient serves markets such as packaging, automotive, consumer goods, healthcare, electronics, and agriculture, tailoring products to meet stringent regulatory and end-use requirements. Formed through a corporate rebranding in 2020 following the divestiture of PolyOne's specialty businesses, Avient traces its heritage to a legacy of polymer innovation spanning decades. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Avient Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Avient (AVNT) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.96 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.89 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.8 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +7.87%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this maker of resins used in plastic pipe and other products would post earnings of $0.81 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.83, delivering a surprise of +2.47%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. Avient, which belongs to the Zacks Chemical - Diversified industry, posted revenues of $917 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.43%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $866.5 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Avient shares have added about 21.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.8%. While Avient has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Avient was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.75 on $853.18 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $3.08 on $3.4 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Chemical - Diversified is currently in the top 43% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. One other stock from the broader Zacks Basic Materials sector, Silvercorp (SVM), is yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 10. This mineral miner is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.21 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +110%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 51.9% lower over the last 30 days to the current level. Silvercorp's revenues are expected to be $138.7 million, up 70.5% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Avient Corporation (AVNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Silvercorp Metals Inc. (SVM) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Second quarter sales grew 5.8% to $917 million, driven by 4.3% organic sales growth and 1.5% favorable foreign exchange, with organic growth in both business segments Second quarter GAAP EPS of $0.70 compared to $0.57 in the prior year quarter Second quarter adjusted EPS grew 20% over the prior year to $0.96; exceeded adjusted EPS guidance of $0.89, primarily driven by better-than-expected organic volume growth Strong cash flow generation in the quarter supported $50 million of debt repayment; expect to repay a total of $100 to $150 million during the full year 2026 Increasing 2026 full year adjusted EPS guidance range to $3.10 to $3.25 from previous guidance of $2.93 to $3.17; updated full year adjusted EPS guidance range represents 10% to 15% growth over the prior year CLEVELAND, Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Avient Corporation (NYSE: AVNT), an innovator of materials solutions, today announced its second quarter results for 2026. Second quarter GAAP earnings per share (EPS) were $0.70 compared to $0.57 in the prior year quarter. The company noted that in the second quarter 2026, GAAP EPS includes special items of $0.09 and intangible amortization expense of $0.17 compared to special items of $0.07 and intangible amortization of $0.16 in the second quarter 2025 (see attachment 1). Second quarter 2026 adjusted EPS was $0.96 compared to $0.80 in the prior year quarter, reflecting 20% growth in adjusted EPS over the prior year. "Our teams delivered another quarter of strong execution, generating organic growth and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion in each of our two business segments. By remaining close to our customers, proactively managing inflation and supply chain disruptions, we delivered profitable growth across the portfolio," said Dr. Ashish Khandpur, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Avient Corporation. "Organic sales growth was driven by a combination of market share gains, new product innovation, and pricing actions. Our performance reflects the team's execution of our strategy to intersect Avient's capabilities with high growth secular trends while driving productivity improvements to enable both top-line growth and margin expansion. As a result, organic sales grew 4.3% and adjusted EBITDA margins expanded by 110 basis points to a record high 18.3%." added Dr. Khandpur. 2026 Outlook "Our teams once again demonstrated strong operational discipline to manage a volatile business environment while executing our strategy to drive long-term value creation. Supported by our year-to-date results and visibility into third quarter demand, we are increasing our full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $575 to $603 million and adjusted EPS guidance to $3.10 to $3.25, representing 10% to 15% adjusted EPS growth for the year," said Joe Di Salvo, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "Strong cash generation continues to support both investment in growth and balance sheet improvement. We expect to repay a total of $100 to $150 million of debt during 2026, including $50 million repaid during the second quarter," said Mr. Di Salvo. Dr. Khandpur added, "Our strategy continues to produce strong financial results, delivering earnings growth in both 2024 and 2025 and positioning us to deliver double-digit adjusted EPS growth in 2026. As we look ahead, we remain focused on balancing strong near-term execution and financial performance with targeted investments in our prioritized growth portfolios, while continuing to serve our customers with innovation, quality, and reliability that underpin long-term value creation." Webcast Details Avient will provide additional details on its 2026 second quarter and its 2026 full year outlook during its webcast scheduled for 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on August 6, 2026. The webcast can be viewed live at avient.com/investors, or by clicking on the webcast link here. Conference call participants in the question and answer session should pre-register using the link at avient.com/investors, or here, to receive the dial-in number and personal PIN. This information is required to access the conference call. The question-and-answer session will follow the company's presentation and prepared remarks. A recording of the webcast and the slide presentation will be available at avient.com/investors/events-presentations immediately following the conference call and will be accessible for one year. Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company uses both GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and non-GAAP financial measures. The non-GAAP financial measures include organic performance (which excludes the impact of foreign exchange), adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margins, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow. Avient's chief operating decision maker uses these financial measures to monitor and evaluate the ongoing performance of the Company and each business segment and to allocate resources. The Company does not provide reconciliations of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, to the most comparable GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis because the Company is unable to provide a meaningful or accurate calculation or estimation of reconciling items, and the information is not available without unreasonable effort. This is due to the inherent difficulty of forecasting the timing and amount of certain items, such as, but not limited to, environmental remediation costs and associated recoveries, mark-to-market adjustments on pension and other post-retirement obligations, acquisition-related charges, and other non-routine costs. Each of such adjustments has not yet occurred, are out of the Company's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. For the same reasons, the Company is unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information. To access Avient's news library online, please visit www.avient.com/news. About Avient Our purpose at Avient Corporation (NYSE: AVNT) is to be an innovator of materials solutions that help our customers succeed, while enabling a sustainable world. Our local touch and customer engagement, combined with our global presence, allows us to serve customers with agility. We harness the collective strength of more than 9,000 employees worldwide to collaborate and build on each other's ideas. In doing so, we innovate solutions that help our customers overcome their challenges or capitalize on opportunities provided by the fast-changing world and secular trends. Our expanding portfolio of offerings includes colorants, advanced composites, functional additives, engineered materials, and Dyneema®, the world's strongest fiber™. By intersecting our broad portfolio of technologies with the product roadmaps of our customers, we help create differentiated and high-performance products that make the world better and more sustainable. Visit www.avient.com to learn more. Forward-looking Statements In this press release, statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not guarantees of future performance. They are based on management's expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. They use words such as "will," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial condition, performance and/or sales. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the global credit markets that could adversely impact the availability of credit already arranged and the availability and cost of credit in the future; the effect on foreign operations of currency fluctuations, tariffs and other political, economic and regulatory risks; disruptions or inefficiencies in our supply chain, logistics, or operations; changes in laws and regulations in jurisdictions where we conduct business, including with respect to plastics and climate change; changes to foreign trade policy, including new or increased tariffs and changing import/export regulation; fluctuations in raw material prices, quality and supply, and in energy prices and supply; demand for our products and services; production outages or material costs associated with scheduled or unscheduled maintenance programs; unanticipated developments that could occur with respect to contingencies such as litigation and environmental matters; our ability to pay regular quarterly cash dividends and the amounts and timing of any future dividends; information systems failures, cybersecurity breaches and cyberattacks; our ability to service our indebtedness and restrictions on our current and future operations due to our indebtedness; amounts for cash and non-cash charges related to restructuring plans that may differ from original estimates, including because of timing changes associated with the underlying actions; and other factors affecting our business beyond our control, including without limitation, changes in the general economy, changes in interest rates, changes in the rate of inflation, geopolitical conflicts and any recessionary conditions. 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This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Adjusted EPS: $0.96, $0.09 ahead of expectations, with 20% growth year over year. Organic Sales Growth: 4.3% in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Record 18.3%, an expansion of 110 basis points year over year. Debt Repayment: $50 million repaid in the second quarter, with total debt reduction of $200 million over the last 12 months. Color Additives and Inks Segment: 5% organic sales growth and 9% adjusted EBITDA growth, with adjusted EBITDA margin expanding 80 basis points to 21.7%. Specially Engineered Materials Segment: 3% organic sales growth, with adjusted EBITDA of $76 million, an increase of 20% compared to the prior year. Asia Organic Sales Growth: 18% over the prior year quarter. Full Year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance: Raised to a range of $575 million to $603 million. Full Year 2026 Adjusted EPS Guidance: Raised to a range of $3.10 to $3.25 per share. Full Year 2026 Free Cash Flow Guidance: Raised to a range of $210 million to $230 million. Third Quarter 2026 Adjusted EPS Guidance: Approximately $0.80 per share, representing 14% growth versus the prior year quarter. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with AVNT. Is AVNT fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 06, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Adjusted EPS of $0.96 beat expectations by $0.09, driven by stronger-than-expected volume growth. Organic sales grew 4.3% with double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth, and adjusted EBITDA margins reached a record 18.3%, up 110 basis points year-over-year. Asia was a standout, with organic sales up 18% year-over-year, driven by secular tailwinds in electronics and high-performance computing. The company raised its full-year guidance for adjusted EBITDA, EPS, and free cash flow, reflecting strong first-half performance and momentum. Strong cash flow enabled $50 million debt repayment in Q2, with total debt reduction of $200 million over the last 12 months, supporting balance sheet improvement. Transportation demand remains soft, with lower vehicle production rates and weaker marine applications, and no improvement is expected in the second half. Healthcare business faced headwinds from customer inventory rebalancing, which weighed on first-half results. US and Canada organic sales declined 2% year-over-year, with volumes down nearly 4% in Q2. The company faces ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, including inflation and geopolitical developments, which could impact future performance. Pricing actions contributed significantly to growth, but the benefit is expected to subside in Q4, with volume needing to take over as the primary growth driver. Q: Can you break down the 4.3% organic growth between volume and price, and how will this mix evolve through the year?A: Giuseppe Di Salvo (CFO): Of the 4.3% organic growth, about one-quarter was volume and three-quarters was price. However, this ratio is expected to flip to approximately 70% volume and 30% price by Q4, with Q3 falling somewhere in between. We will remain net price positive in every quarter this year, but volume will become the dominant growth driver as the year progresses. Q: What were the 2 or 3 biggest surprises that led to the significant upside in Q2 versus your May guidance?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): The biggest driver was volume growth. We had projected volumes to be down 1% to 2% in Q2, but they came in at roughly +1% positive. Pricing execution matched our projections exactly, and FX was only slightly favorable. The volume outperformance was the primary reason for the $0.09 beat on adjusted EPS. Q: Did Q2 volume growth benefit from customer pre-buying ahead of price increases, or was it genuine underlying demand?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): We are confident there was very little, if any, pre-buyingit would be minuscule and within normal error bars. We have already received July results, which started the quarter strong and in line with our projections, confirming that the demand we saw in Q2 was real and not pulled forward. Q: Can you provide more detail on the margin expansion in Specialty Engineered Materials (SEM)? How much was mix, productivity, and pricing, and what is the outlook?A: Giuseppe Di Salvo (CFO): The planned maintenance had about a 100 basis point benefit for the quarter, so the remaining ~200 basis points of expansion was split between favorable price/mix and net productivity gains. For the second half of the year, we expect the SEM segment to expand margins by approximately 100 basis points year-over-year, driven primarily by favorable mix from high-growth areas like defense and electronics, as well as continued productivity benefits. Q: How is the end-market mix expected to impact margins in the second half, and what is the outlook for your growth vectors?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): We expect margin growth for the total company and within both segments. We grew organic sales in 7 of our 9 end markets in Q2 and expect 8 of 9 to grow in Q3. Our growth vectors (electronics, defense, etc.) are expected to continue outperforming the rest of the business, particularly on the volume side, driven by new business wins and innovation. We remain bullish on our margin expansion story. Q: What is the traction and regulatory driver behind your new non-PFAS polymer processing aids (PPAs) in packaging?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): In Europe, regulations effective August 2026 mandate that food packaging must not have PFAS added during processing. This is driving our non-PPA business, especially in flexible food packaging. Beyond regulation, many multinational customers are voluntarily moving away from PFAS. We are in trials with many customers, and while qualifications take time, this is a new business worth a few million dollars this year that we expect to grow significantly. Q: US and Canada organic sales were down 2% year-over-year. Can you provide color on the volume trend and what you are seeing in the May-June-July timeframe?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): Volumes in the US were actually down almost 4% in Q2. However, we expect volumes to turn positive in the mid-single-digit range for Q3 and Q4. We are already seeing these improving results in July, and we expect healthy, volume-driven growth in the US and Canada in the second half of the year. Q: Can you size the data center and electronics opportunity for Avient?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): We view this as an "electronics/digital play" spanning from silicon chips to servers in data centers. The directly addressable opportunity for our current portfolio is about $2 billion. Our business in this area will finish close to $100 million this year, having doubled our electronics business over the last 3 years. We expect similar doubling over the next 2-3 years, assuming industry growth rates sustain. Q: You mentioned SEM should expand margins by 100 basis points in the second half. Is that half-over-half or year-over-year, and what are the underlying assumptions?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): The 100 basis points is year-over-year. It will be driven primarily by favorable mix and productivity benefits. Defense was up low single-digits in H1 but will see greater growth in H2 as we lap easier comps. Continued momentum in higher-margin electronics and high-performance computing will also contribute to the favorable mix and margin expansion. Q: With net leverage guiding to 2.2-2.4x, how are you thinking about capital deployment between debt paydown, buybacks, and M&A?A: Ashish Khandpur (CEO): We have prioritized debt reduction and are now close to our target range. As we get closer, we have more optionality. We can continue to pay down debt, buy back stock if we believe it is undervalued, or look at portfolio additions to drive more growth and margin expansion. All three options are on the table, and we have started processes, but nothing is imminent to model right now. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Celanese Corporation CE reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $2.45 per share, up 71.3% from $1.43 a year ago. The bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.21 by 10.9%. Net sales rose 8.7% year over year to $2.75 billion and beat the consensus estimate of $2.65 billion by 3.7%. Strong pricing and mix, commercial execution and momentum in medical and electronics supported the results. Sequentially, sales increased 18%, reflecting a 4% volume gain and a 14% pricing increase. Celanese Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Celanese Corporation Quote Engineered Materials recorded net sales of $1.45 billion, up 9% sequentially. It beat our estimate of $1.42 billion. The segment generated an operating profit of $156 million and adjusted EBIT of $234 million. Operating profit declined from $164 million a year ago, while adjusted EBIT increased from $213 million. The Acetyl Chain posted net sales of $1.33 billion, up 28% sequentially. It topped our estimate of $1.22 billion. The segment delivered an operating profit of $237 million, up from $153 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBIT increased to $321 million from $195 million. Celanese ended the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1.36 billion. Long-term debt was $10.70 billion. Cash provided by operating activities totaled $209 million and free cash flow was $140 million. Celanese expects third-quarter adjusted earnings in the range of $1.35-$1.75 per share. For 2026, the company continues to expect adjusted earnings of approximately $6 per share. Celanese also maintained its full-year free cash flow guidance of $700-$800 million. Management expects growth initiatives and productivity, portfolio and footprint actions to support performance in 2026. These measures are also intended to create additional earnings growth opportunities in the years ahead while strengthening cash generation and supporting deleveraging. CE’s shares have declined 5.4% in the past year against a 4% rise in the industry. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research CE currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Neo Performance Materials Inc. NOPMF, Almonty Industries Inc. ALM and Avient Corporation AVNT. Neo Performance is slated to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 11. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.48 per share. NOPMF sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Almonty is expected to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALM’s second-quarter earnings per share is pegged at 44 cents, indicating 500% year-over-year growth. ALM holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. Avient is slated to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 6. The consensus estimate for AVNT’s earnings per share is pegged at $3.08. AVNT presently carries a Zacks Rank #2. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Celanese Corporation (CE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Avient Corporation (AVNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Almonty Industries Inc. (ALM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Neo Performance Materials Inc. (NOPMF) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research