CF Industries Holdings, Inc.
CF
reported a profit of $87 million or 40 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with profits of $55 million or 25 cents in the year-ago quarter. Also, earnings per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 8 cents.
Net sales increased 5% year over year to $1,102 million in the quarter. The figure also beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $984.2 million.
Per the company, average selling prices in the reported quarter were lower on a year-over-year basis across most segments due to higher global supply availability. But, sales volume in the fourth quarter was higher than the prior-year quarter’s levels owing to greater supply availability.
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
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CF Industries Holdings, Inc. Quote
Segment Review
Net sales in the Ammonia segment increased 12% year over year to $298 million in the reported quarter. In full year 2020, sales volume increased from prior-year’s levels owing to increased supply availability resulting from higher production and beginning inventories in the year. Average selling prices in 2020 declined due to increased global supply availability.
Sales in the Granular Urea segment increased 39.3% year over year to $333 million. Average selling prices for urea declined for the full year due to increased global supply availability, while sales volume increased due to greater supply availability.
Sales in the UAN segment fell 19% year over year to $272 million. Sales volume in 2020 was in-line with prior-year levels, while average selling prices declined due to higher global supply availability.
Sales in the AN segment declined 4.3% year over year to $112 million. In 2020, sales volumes rose year over year but average selling prices declined due to increased global supply availability.
FY20 Results
Earnings (as reported) for full-year 2020 were $1.47 per share compared with earnings of $2.23 per share a year ago. Net sales fell 10.9% year over year to around $4.1 billion.
Financials
CF Industries’ cash and cash equivalents increased 138% year over year to $683 million at the end of 2020. Long-term debt was $3,712 million at the end of the year, down 6.2% year over year.
Cash flow from operations amounted to $290 million in the reported quarter, down 4% year over year.
Outlook
CF Industries expects nitrogen pricing to be positive in 2021 owing to higher commodity crop futures prices as well as energy prices in Asia and Europe. The company projects around 90-92 million planted corn acres in the United States in 2021. It expects higher canola plantings in Canada to also support nitrogen demand. Moreover, CF Industries projects higher nitrogen demand in North America for industrial uses. Also, the company sees global nitrogen requirements to remain robust this year, which is likely to be driven by strong demand for urea imports from India and Brazil.
Price Performance
Shares of CF Industries have gained 14.6% in the past year compared with 51.3% rise of the
industry
.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
CF Industries currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are
Fortescue Metals Group Limited
FSUGY
,
BHP Group
BHP
and
Impala Platinum Holdings Limited
IMPUY
.
Fortescue has a projected earnings growth rate of 78.4% for the current fiscal. The company’s shares have surged around 156.4% in a year. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
BHP has an expected earnings growth rate of 61.2% for the current fiscal. The company’s shares have gained around 46.9% in the past year. It currently holds a Zacks Rank #2.
Impala has an expected earnings growth rate of 195.9% for the current fiscal. The company’s shares have rallied around 39.6% in the past year. It currently sports a Zacks Rank #1.
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