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what it is
Element Solutions makes specialty chemicals that help electronics and industrial customers build, coat, and finish the stuff you use every day.
how it gets paid
Last year Element Solutions made $2.6B in revenue. The largest single segment was semiconductor fabrication chemicals at ~$0.83B (~32% of sales); electronics-related lines in total are ~64% of the mix.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 3.8% last year. Street-style outlook (not guidance): EPS up ~15% in 2026 on ~5% sales gain — a forecast, not a promise.
what just happened
Element Solutions cleared a low bar, with EPS beating estimates by 54.17% in its latest reported quarter.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
35/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
30.9x trailing p/e — you're paying up for this one
1.0% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
8.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 60/100 — average
What they do
Element Solutions makes specialty chemicals that help electronics and industrial customers build, coat, and finish the stuff you use every day.
This business wins by getting buried inside your customer's production line. Once a chemical is qualified in chip fabrication or surface finishing, switching is painful because a bad swap can wreck yield, slow output, or force re-testing. That stickiness shows up in a 21.5% operating margin and 64% of 2024 revenue coming from electronics, where reliability matters more than saving a few cents.
How they make money
$2.6B
annual revenue · their business grew +3.8% last year
semiconductor fabrication chemicals
$0.83B
consumer and power electronics chemicals
$0.57B
communications and data storage materials
$0.27B
automotive and industrial surface finishing
$0.62B
consumer packaging and offshore energy chemicals
$0.31B
The products that matter
chemistry for electronics production
electronics chemicals
part of a $2.6B revenue base · ~21.5% operating margin
this is the higher-value part of the story: chemicals used in semiconductors and printed circuit boards inside a company that generated $2.6B in total revenue.
electronics exposure
surface treatment and industrial chemistry
industrial & specialty
part of the same $2.6B base · weaker recent demand
management commentary on this page points to softness here, which matters because slow industrial demand can offset the better electronics backdrop even with ~21.5% operating margin at the company level.
cyclical drag
portfolio mix, not a single hero product
blended chemicals portfolio
$2.6B revenue · ~13.3% net margin
this is not a one-product bet. you own a portfolio business where the mix across electronics and industrial end markets decides whether low-teens net margins move up or stall out.
mix matters
Key numbers
64%
electronics mix
Most of your revenue is tied to electronics demand. That concentration is the growth story and the risk in one number.
21.5%
operating margin
Operating margin → what is left after running the business → so what: ESI keeps about $0.22 from each sales dollar before interest and taxes.
$1.6B
long debt
Debt → borrowed money that must be serviced → so what: the balance sheet is fine, but not so clean that downturns stop mattering.
30.9x
trailing p/e
P/E → price divided by last year's earnings → so what: you are paying a full multiple on a name that just grew sales ~3.8% last year — room for disappointment if growth stays muted.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 60 / 100
- long-term debt $1.6B (18% of capital)
- net profit margin 13.3% — keeps 13 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 11% — $0.11 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — above-average balance sheet quality vs. most industrials; still watch leverage through cycles.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in ESI 3 years ago → it's now worth $15,970.
The index would have given you $13,880.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
beat estimates
Element Solutions cleared a low bar, with EPS beating estimates by 54.17% in its latest reported quarter.
The quarter was helped by strength in Electronics and acquisition contributions. Revenue was $676.2M in Q4 2025, EPS was $0.37 versus a $0.24 consensus, and gross margin was 42.3%.
$676.2M
Q4 revenue
$0.37
Q4 eps
42.3%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The important number was the $0.37 EPS print, because it beat the $0.24 estimate by 54.17% and showed electronics demand held up better than feared.
-
element solutions likely didn’t make much headway in 2025.note: full-year operating results were scheduled to be released shortly after we went to press with this report. tougher operating conditions have weighed on the company over the past few months, with sluggish demand hurting results at element’s industrial & specialty business.
-
nevertheless, strength at the electronics segment, combined with contributions from recent acquisitions (more below), probably helped sales grow nearly 2% over the course of 2025.
-
we think the bottom line held steady compared to the year-ago figure.
-
near-term prospects seem brighter.the industrial business backdrop ought to pick up in the coming quarters, and management’s operating improvements and strategic growth initiatives should begin to take hold this year.
-
all in all, earnings per share will probably increase 15% in 2026, on a 5% sales gain.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top risk is a slower-than-expected recovery in electronics and pcb demand.
med
electronics recovery slips
the stock is being valued like semiconductor and electronics demand will improve. if customers keep working through inventory or orders stay delayed, the revenue re-acceleration case weakens fast.
with 30.9x trailing earnings on just 3.8% growth, the multiple does not leave much room for another slow year.
med
industrial & specialty stays soft
this page already flags sluggish demand in the industrial & specialty business. if that side of the portfolio stays weak, electronics strength has to do all the work.
that can keep company-wide growth stuck near low single digits even if one segment is improving.
med
chemical regulation and operating costs
specialty-chemicals businesses live with environmental, safety, and handling rules. tighter standards or higher input costs can pressure margins even when demand is fine.
a ~13% net margin is healthy, but it is not so wide that cost creep becomes irrelevant.
between electronics and industrial exposure, essentially all $2.6B of revenue depends on manufacturing activity staying healthy enough to support both volume and margin.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
earnings
next quarter's electronics commentary
the key question is whether management talks about a real demand recovery or just less bad conditions.
metric
revenue growth above 5%
the street is looking for roughly 5% sales growth in 2026. if ESI cannot get there, the premium multiple gets harder to defend.
trend
industrial & specialty demand
electronics strength is helpful, but you want fewer signs that the industrial side is still dragging the whole company.
risk
return on capital
~8% return on capital (per scoreboard) is the quiet problem. if growth improves without that number improving, quality is still only average.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
average
timeliness score 3. in human-speak, analysts think this looks fine, not urgent.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — neither a bunker stock nor a chaos trade.
chart momentum
average
technical score 3 — the chart is not screaming anything unusual right now.
earnings predictability
35 / 100
translation: quarterly numbers are harder to model here than they are for steadier compounders.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 207 buyers vs. 158 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.2B shares.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$23
$48
$30.91
current price
$36
target midpoint · +16% from current · range high: $48 (~+55% from current)
Want the deeper analysis?
The full deep dive: dcf model, scenario analysis, competitive moat breakdown, and quarterly tracking — everything on this page, taken further.
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