5 Reasons To Add Kronos Worldwide Stock To Your Portfolio

Kronos Worldwide’s (NYSE:KRO) stock looks promising at the moment. The chemical maker, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), has seen its shares pop roughly 56% year to date. If you haven’t taken advantage of the share price appreciation yet, the time is right for you to add the stock to portfolio as it looks promising and is poised to carry the momentum ahead.

What’s Working in Favor of Kronos?

Strong Q1 Performance & Upbeat Outlook: Kronos swung to a profit of $36.8 million or 32 cents per share in first-quarter 2017 from a loss of $3.8 million or 3 cents per share a year ago. Earnings per share topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 22 cents.

The results in the reported quarter were boosted by higher income from operations resulting from favorable impacts of improved selling prices, increased sales and production volumes and reduced raw materials and other production costs.

Revenues climbed 16% year over year to $369.8 million in the quarter, driven by higher titanium dioxide (TiO2) selling prices and increased sales volumes. Sales also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $350 million.

Kronos envisions its production volumes to be higher in 2017 on a year over year basis as production rates this year will be favorably impacted by the implementation of certain productivity-enhancing improvement projects at some facilities. It also sees healthy demand for its TiO2 products across some of its primary markets.

Kronos also expects income from operations in 2017 will be higher on a year over year basis, mainly due to an expected increase in average selling prices and the favorable impact of anticipated higher production volumes in 2017.

An Outperformer: Kronos has significantly outperformed the Zacks categorized Chemicals-Diversified industry over a year, partly reflecting its forecast-topping earnings performance. The company’s shares have gained a whopping 209% over this period, compared with roughly 16.2% gain recorded by the industry.

Estimates Moving Up: Annual estimates for Kronos have moved north over the past 30 days, reflecting analysts’ confidence on the stock. Over this period, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2017 has increased by around 13.8% to 91 cents per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 has also moved up 17% over the same timeframe to $1.24.

Positive Earnings Surprise History: Kronos has an impressive earnings surprise history. The company has outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, delivering a positive average earnings surprise of 64.14%.

Healthy Growth Prospects: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings for 2017 is currently pegged at 91 cents, reflecting an expected year-over-year growth of 192.5%. Moreover, earnings are expected to register a 36.2% growth in 2018. The stock also has a long-term (3-5 years) expected earnings per share growth rate of 5%.

Kronos Worldwide Inc Price and Consensus

Kronos Worldwide Inc Price and Consensus | Kronos Worldwide Inc Quote

Other Stocks to Consider

Other top ranked stocks in the chemical space include Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) , BASF SE (OTC:BASFY) and The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC) , all sporting a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Huntsman has an expected long-term earnings growth of 7%.

BASF has an expected long-term earnings growth of 8.6%.

Chemours has an expected long-term earnings growth of 15.5%.

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