Al Root

Chemours declined sharply after reporting weaker-than-expected earnings. Data-center cooling markets couldn't save the quarter.

Chemours late Thursday announced fourth-quarter earnings per share of 5 cents, down from 9 cents a year ago. Sales were down slightly at $1.3 billion. Wall Street was looking for earnings per share of 7 cents from sales of $1.3 billion.

Sales of titanium dioxide, used in white paint, and related products fell 11% year over year, to $561 million, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, dropped 67% to $23 million. Sales of Chemours' advanced materials business, which makes Teflon, among other products, fell 4%, to $312 million. Ebitda dropped 74% to $12 million.

Thermal & specialized solutions sales jumped 14%, to $444 million, and Ebitda grew 5% to $128 million.

The thermal solutions business is what has investors excited lately. Coming into Friday, Chemours stock had risen 73% this year.

Part of that business supplies two-phase cooling solutions to data centers. Modern artificial-intelligence chips need advanced cooling. Currently, that includes high purity water on chips. There are also processes involving chemicals that transition from liquid to gas. That's the two-phase part of two-phase cooling.

Sales of Chemours Opteon coolant, which can be used in data centers, grew 37% in the fourth quarter, to $243 million.

Still, thermal growth wasn't enough to ward off an earnings miss. Shares were down 9.7% at $18.43, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both down slightly.

Guidance weighed on Chemoura shares, too. Full-year guidance looked OK. For 2026, Chemours expects sales of about $6 billion, not too far from Wall Street estimates. Ebitda is expected to be between $800 million and $900 million. Analysts have projected $880 million, according to FactSet. For the first quarter, however, Ebitda is expected to be between $120 million and $150 million. Analysts projected closer to $170 million.

The softer first-quarter guidance is due to weakness in the company's titanium dioxide and advanced materials business, wrote RBC analyst Arun Viswanathan on Thursday. There are timing and mix issues in the titanium business, he said. The materials business is facing a plant outage. He was encouraged by the full-year guidance.

Viswanathan expected a "slight negative reaction" to earnings. Down nearly 10% is more than a slight reaction. He rates shares Buy and has an $18 price target on the stock.

The biggest reason for the reaction might not be the results but the huge gain heading into the earnings report.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@barrons.com

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February 20, 2026 08:44 ET (13:44 GMT)

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