Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. APD recently announced that it was awarded a long-term onsite contract by a global memory and storage solutions provider to supply its state-of-the-art new facility in Penang, North Malaysia. The latest deal is expected to strengthen Air Products’ long-term relationship with its global customer and establish its leading position in the fast-growing electronics markets.
Notably, Air Products stated that it will install a proprietary PRISM cryogenic nitrogen generator to the new facility. It will supply high purity, economical on-site gaseous nitrogen along with substantial volumes of liquid nitrogen. The gases will be used in operations like chip assembly processes and cold testing of the memory products. This will help improve the quality of product as well as productivity and environmental performance.
Air Products has been operating in Malaysia since 1974. The company has two advanced air separation units in the Prai Industrial Park in Penang along with an extensive supply network expanding into the Batu Kawan Industrial Park and the Bukit Minyak Industrial Park. Together, these provide a strong and highly reliable gases supply to its customers.
Air Products’ shares have gained 33.8% in the past year compared with the industry’s 2.5% rise.
In July, Air Products stated that it will continue to generate value for shareholders over the long term and invest in world-scale, sustainability-focused projects, notwithstanding the challenging environment.
The company’s investments in high-return projects, project wins and productivity actions should drive its fiscal 2020 results. The company is boosting productivity to improve its cost structure. It is seeing the positive impacts of its productivity actions and is expected to benefit from additional productivity and cost-improvement programs in fiscal 2020.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Air Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Kinross Gold Corporation KGC, Eldorado Gold Corporation EGO and Yamana Gold Inc. AUY, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.
Kinross has an expected earnings growth rate of 100% for 2020. The company’s shares have surged 88.7% in the past year.
Eldorado Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 2,325% for 2020. Its shares have returned 25.9% in the past year.
Yamana has an expected earnings growth rate of 76.9% for 2020. The company’s shares have soared 86.6% in the past year.
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