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Phibro Animal Health Stock Up 52.8% in a Year: What's Driving the Rise?

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Key Takeaways

  • Phibro shares jumped 52.8% in a year, outperforming both the industry and S&P 500 composite indexes.
  • PAHC's Animal Health sales rose 42% in fiscal Q3, led by 68% growth in MFAs and microbial product demand.
  • Phibro expanded globally with a new Brazil vaccine site and Zoetis acquisition, adding 37 product lines.

Phibro Animal Health (PAHC - Free Report) shares have climbed 52.8% in a year, showcasing impressive momentum. The stock has outpaced the industry’s 14.3% growth and the S&P 500 composite’s 11.7% gain.

With healthy fundamentals and strong growth opportunities, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company appears to be a solid wealth creator for its investors at the moment.

New Jersey-based Phibro offers a broad range of products for food animals, including poultry, swine, beef, dairy cattle and aquaculture. In addition to animal health and mineral nutrition products, the company manufactures and markets specific ingredients for use in the personal care, automotive, industrial chemical and chemical catalyst industries. Phibro’s business is currently concentrated in the livestock sector, and it is investing resources to develop products for the companion animal sector.

Key Factors Behind PAHC’s Surge

Phibro's share price is trending upward, prompted by robust demand for the company’s Animal Health products. The company ended the fiscal third quarter with the Animal Health business reporting 42% sales growth year over year, led by a robust 68% increase in Medicated Feed Additives (“MFA”) and other product sales. Improved domestic dairy demand and higher sales of microbial and companion animal products also contributed to the segment’s growth. Moreover, Phibro’s latest acquisition of Zoetis’ MFA product portfolio and certain water-soluble products adds more than 37 product lines sold across 80 countries, along with six manufacturing sites in the United States, Italy and China. 

Investors expressed optimism about Phibro’s significant investments in expanding vaccine manufacturing capacity at several locations. Recently, Phibro began operations at a new vaccine production facility in Guarulhos, Brazil, that manufactures and markets autogenous vaccines against animal diseases for swine, poultry and aquaculture. The vaccine business experienced a 1% increase in revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2025, driven by a strong uptake across both international and domestic markets.

Additionally, the recovery within the Mineral Nutrition and Performance Products businesses is encouraging. In line with this, the Mineral Nutrition business grew 4% year over year during the fiscal third quarter, backed by increased sales volume and pricing. Meanwhile, strong demand for ingredients used in personal care products is driving the Performance Products segment’s growth.

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Phibro reported a fiscal third-quarter operating profit of $33.4 million, which increased 67.8% year over year, with the operating margin expanding 204 bps. Also, the company has pretty good solvency reflected through its low short-term-payable debt of $16 million on its balance sheet (total cash and short-term investments were $70.4 million). These factors have positively impacted the stock, contributing to its price increase. 

Concerns for PAHC

Phibro’s business remains vulnerable to macroeconomic volatility, including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, supply-chain and logistics disruptions, and heightened cybersecurity threats. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar is currently affecting the company’s export market.

A Glance at PAHC’s Consensus Estimates

Phibro’s fiscal 2025 and 2026 earnings per share (EPS) are expected to increase 71.4% and 12.5% to $2.04 and $2.29, respectively, year over year. In the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company's fiscal 2025 EPS has remained unchanged at $2.04.  

Revenues for fiscal 2025 are projected to grow 25.7% to $1.28 billion, while the same for fiscal 2026 is expected to reach $1.41 billion, implying a 10.3% increase.

Other Top MedTech Stocks

Some other top-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Align Technology (ALGN - Free Report) , Hims & Hers Health (HIMS - Free Report) and Cencora (COR - Free Report) . 

Align Technology has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 11.2% compared with the industry’s 9.9% rise. Its earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 3.4%. Its shares have lost 27.7% compared with the industry’s 3.3% decline in the past year.

ALGN sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Hims & Hers Health, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has an earnings yield of 1.3% against the industry’s -10.1%. Shares of the company have surged 129.7% compared with the industry’s 35.9% growth. HIMS’ earnings surpassed estimates in two of the trailing four quarters, matched on one occasion and missed on another, the average surprise being 2.8%.

Cencora, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has an earnings yield of 5.4% compared with the industry’s 3.8% growth. Shares of the company have rallied 25.9% against the industry’s 14.4% decline. COR’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 6%.

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