What: Shares of The Chemours Company (CC -0.59%) sunk more than 18% today following the company's announcement that fourth-quarter sales will be lower than previously expected.
So What: Chemours, the recent spin-off from DuPont, announced that various market forces, including the strength of the U.S. dollar, would lead to lower-than-expected sales in the fourth quarter for two of its major products: titanium dioxide and fluoropolymers. The demand weakness for these products has led management at Chemours to cut global pricing for these products by 3%.
As you would expect, the reduction in price and demand is expected to have an impact on profits, but the company was much more vague on what these declines will mean for its earnings numbers. It only said that the coming quarter's EBITDA will be lower than the third quarter of 2015.
Now What: The market has not been kind to Chemours since its spin-off back in June; since that time, the company's shares have declined more than 77%. Then again, Chemours isn't exactly giving the market a whole lot of reasons to love this company. Revenue at the company, both as a separate company and when it was under DuPont, have declined for several years now, and these past two quarters, the company's earnings dipped into the red.
Even though Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano said that the company expects to cut its workforce and reduce operating expenses by $100 million for the second half of 2015, the declining revenue will most likely result in another loss for the fourth quarter.
As an investor, it may be best to sit on the sidelines for a while to see if the company can execute on its cost-cutting measures. Longer term, management thinks it could reduce expenses $350 million, by 2017, which should help to put it back on a track of profitability. If this happens, the company could be more appealing, but it's better to see execution rather than investing in the hope that it will happen.
