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What: Shares of Chemours (CC 0.75%) are up 12.6% as of 10:25 a.m. EDT after the company reported operational profits that were well above expectations for the quarter.
So what: On a GAAP basis, Chemours reported a per share loss of $0.10, but a large component of that loss came from $72 million in impairment and restructuring charges. If we were to strip out that impairment charge, Chemours' normalized earnings were a much more impressive $0.27 per share. That was well above the consensus analyst estimates that had Chemours posting a $0.17 gain for the quarter.
The reason for the better-than-expected performance this past quarter was from lower operational costs across the entire company as well as better than expected pricing from its Flouroproducts segment, which increased its adjusted EBITDA by 94% to $105 million. The company also benefited from selling a couple of its underperforming assets.
Now what: A year after being spun off from DuPont, Chemours' results have been consistently hampered by restructuring and impairment charges as it tries to right-size its business. This past quarter, we started to see those charges get smaller as the company has sold off less profitable businesses and cut costs. There are still some moves Chemours has left to make before completing this turnaround, and until then, it's probably best for investors to sit on the sidelines to see how it turns out. Overall, things are looking better, and it will be worth watching over the next couple of quarters to see if the company can turn this spin-off into a sustainably profitable business.
