Air Products To Exhibit Full Range Of Hydrogen Plant Services

Air Products (NYSE:APD) declared that it will feature its full range of hydrogen plant support services, as well as fast, temporary hydrogen and nitrogen supply, for the refining and petrochemical industry at the 2017 American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (“AFPM”) Reliability & Maintenance Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans from May 23–26.

Air Products' Hydrogen Services Business was launched in 2016 due to increasing demand from customers. The business helps them to improve the reliability and productivity of hydrogen plants. This unit can also help customers to combat a wide variety of operational challenges that includes producing hydrogen as per customers need from steam methane reformers, planning SMR turnarounds, solving mechanical integrity issues, instituting feedstock changes, optimizing pressure swing adsorbers (PSAs) and improving energy efficiency.

Air Products’ shares have gained around 2% over the last three months, modestly underperforming the Zacks categorized Chemicals-Diversified industry’s 2.6% gain.

Air Products beat earnings and revenue expectations in second-quarter fiscal 2017 (ended Mar 31, 2017). For third-quarter fiscal 2017, Air Products anticipates adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of $1.55–$1.60 per share, which at midpoint, also represents a 9% increase over last year.

Air Products is well placed to leverage the cyclical recovery in core industrial end-markets. The company has built a strong project backlog. These projects are expected to be accretive to earnings and cash flow over the next few years. Acquisitions and new business wins are expected to continue to drive results in the near term. The company is also progressing well with its $600 million cost-cutting program.

Air Products also has significant amount of cash to invest in its core industrial gases business. The company expects to have roughly $8 billion to deploy in strategic, high-return opportunities to create shareholders value over the next three years.

However, Air Product’s industrial gases business in the EMEA region is witnessing pressure from a weak operating environment. The company is also seeing lower volumes in Latin America due to weak demand. Moreover, volumes in packaged gases continue to be weak, while LNG sales remain under pressure due to low project activity. The company is also exposed to currency headwinds.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Price and Consensus

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Price and Consensus | Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Quote

Air Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

Better-ranked companies in the chemical space include BASF SE (OTC:BASFY) , The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC) and Kronos Worldwide Inc (NYSE:KRO) . All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

BASF has expected long-term growth of 8.6%.

Chemours has expected long-term growth of 15.5%.

Kronos has expected long-term growth of 5%.

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