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5 Reasons to Add Ingevity (NGVT) Stock to Your Portfolio Now

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We are optimistic about Ingevity Corporation’s (NGVT - Free Report) prospects and believe that the time is appropriate to buy the stock as it holds promise and will sustain the momentum.

Let’s delve into the factors that make this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock an attractive choice.

What Makes NGVT an Attractive Pick

An Outperformer: Ingevity has significantly outperformed the industry it belongs to in the past year. The company’s shares have surged 70.1% compared with a roughly 4.5% rise recorded by the industry.

 

Solid Growth Prospects: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Ingevity's 2018 earnings is currently pegged at $3.72, reflecting year-over-year growth of 44.2%. Moreover, earnings are expected to register a 25.6% rise in 2019. The stock has a long-term expected earnings per share (EPS) growth rate of roughly 12%, higher than the industry average of 11.8%.

Upbeat Outlook: Ingevity, in its second-quarter call, stated that it is optimistic about 2018 as it is witnessing the benefits of improving market conditions for basic materials and high-value added technologies.

The company increased the mid-point and narrowed the range for 2018 guidance for adjusted EBITDA to $302-$314 million from $293-$307 million. The company also reaffirmed its sales guidance of between $1.10 billion and $1.13 billion for 2018.

Acquisitions to Drive Growth: Ingevity is expected to gain from the strategy to pursue value-creating acquisitions. In March 2018, the company closed the acquisition of Georgia-Pacific’s pine chemicals business for $310 million. The acquisition boosted sales growth in the Performance Chemicals division in the second quarter. The buyout is expected to create net synergies of roughly $11 million through manufacturing optimization, lower logistics costs and leveraged procurement costs.

High-Margin Products to Boost Margins: Ingevity’s Performance Chemicals unit will benefit from higher adoption of tall oil fatty acid (TOFA)-based products. Healthy TOFA pricing had a positive impact on the margins of the division during first-half 2018. The company expects its high margin application areas to continue gaining strength.

Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are ArcelorMittal (MT - Free Report) , Celanese Corp. (CE - Free Report) and Trinseo S.A. (TSE - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

ArcelorMittal has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 4.8%. Its shares have moved up 13.4% in the past year.

Celanese has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 10%. Its shares have gained 9.1% in the past year.

Trinseo has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. Its shares have returned 14.9% in a year.

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