What: Shares of Chemours (CC 1.65%) jumped 14% by 3:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday. Driving the buying spree was the company's fourth-quarter results as well as its outlook for what lies ahead.
So what: On the surface Chemours results weren't all that great. It reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.4 billion, which was 12% less than the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, adjusted net income fell to $5 million, or $0.03 per share, which is down from $91 million, or $0.50 per share in the year-ago quarter. This was largely due to lower average prices in the company's Titanium Technologies segment as well as $66 million in unfavorable foreign currency movements. However, what pleased investors about these results was the fact that Chemours has been able to capture $100 million in cost reductions during the second half of the year.
Even better, Chemours has line-of-sight on its next $200 million in cost reductions for 2016. This will enable it to deliver improved earnings in 2016 as well as be modestly free cash flow positive. On top of that, the company remains on track to reduce its structural costs by $350 million while growing its earnings by $150 million in order to deliver a $500 million in financial improvement by the end of 2017.
Now what: While Chemours is experiencing some challenging market conditions right now, it's making the necessary changes to transform the company to better align with conditions. Further, when those cost reductions are combined with the expansion projects it has under way, the company expects to be able to vastly improve its bottom line over the next two years. It's an outlook that investors are clearly buying into today.
