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Water Tower Research

Research from Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

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Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>WTR-CMI in 2023. With the majority of stocks in our index finishing the year in positive territory, the WTR-CMI Index managed to keep pace with the Russell 2000, appreciating 15%.</li><li>However, both indexes fell well short of the 24% growth of the S&amp;P 500 in 2023, with the WTR- CMI Index dragged down by four companies that lost more than 50% in value during the year.</li><li>Weak demand and destocking. Looking back at 2023, several themes are emerging as we head into 2024, such as declining commodity prices and weakening end-market demand, with Y/Y volume comps affected by destocking across several end-markets since mid-year, as supply chain constraints, which characterized 2022, are resolved and companies go back to just-in-time inventory management.</li></ul>

WTR-CMI in 2023. With the majority of stocks in our index finishing the year in positive territory, the WTR-CMI Index managed to keep pace with the Russell 2000, appreciating 15%.However, both indexes fell well short of the 24% growth of the S&amp;P 500 in 2023, with the WTR- CMI Index dragged down by four companies that lost more than 50% in value during the year.Weak demand and destocking. Looking back at 2023, several themes are emerging as we head into 2024, such as declining commodity prices and weakening end-market demand, with Y/Y volume comps affected by destocking across several end-markets since mid-year, as supply chain constraints, which characterized 2022, are resolved and companies go back to just-in-time inventory management.

Industry Report - Chemicals & Materials Technology

<div><div><div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li><p>WTR-CMI year to date. As we enter the final month of the third quarter, our index of 30 chemicals and materials technology stocks has underperformed the S&amp;P 500 and the Russell 2000 on both a YTD and Y/Y basis.</p></li><li><p>With most of the margin improvement benefit having played out over the course of 2022 and into 1Q23, stock performance of companies in our sector has been largely driven by market- and industry-specific dynamics and their effects on respective companies.</p></li><li><p>Thus, weaker pricing and customer inventory drawdowns affected the performance of FMC and AVD, which are both down more than 30% YTD. </p></li></ul></div></div></div>

WTR-CMI year to date. As we enter the final month of the third quarter, our index of 30 chemicals and materials technology stocks has underperformed the S&amp;P 500 and the Russell 2000 on both a YTD and Y/Y basis.With most of the margin improvement benefit having played out over the course of 2022 and into 1Q23, stock performance of companies in our sector has been largely driven by market- and industry-specific dynamics and their effects on respective companies.Thus, weaker pricing and customer inventory drawdowns affected the performance of FMC and AVD, which are both down more than 30% YTD. 

Mat-Chem Notes - For the Week Ended September 1, 2023

<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li><p>WTR-CMI last week. In a flat to down market last week, with S&amp;P 500 holding steady with 0.1% price change and Russell 2000 losing 0.9% of its value, our proprietary WTR-CMI index of 30 chemicals and material technology companies appreciated 0.5% for the week, led by 8.5% appreciation in ALB, which seemed to pull along other lithium names, including PLL, LAC and LTHM, which all posted 2-4% returns.</p></li><li><p>EAF was the index’s laggard, losing 9.4% of its value, possibly due to continued softness in the iron ore and steel production sectors.</p></li><li><p>EU relooks at GMO crops. Long a bulwark against expansion of GMO crops, the EU is taking another look at the 2001 rules which were a major obstacle to market penetration by genetically modified seeds that provide better yields, higher nutritional value, and require less water and less pesticides to produce.</p></li></ul>

WTR-CMI last week. In a flat to down market last week, with S&amp;P 500 holding steady with 0.1% price change and Russell 2000 losing 0.9% of its value, our proprietary WTR-CMI index of 30 chemicals and material technology companies appreciated 0.5% for the week, led by 8.5% appreciation in ALB, which seemed to pull along other lithium names, including PLL, LAC and LTHM, which all posted 2-4% returns.EAF was the index’s laggard, losing 9.4% of its value, possibly due to continued softness in the iron ore and steel production sectors.EU relooks at GMO crops. Long a bulwark against expansion of GMO crops, the EU is taking another look at the 2001 rules which were a major obstacle to market penetration by genetically modified seeds that provide better yields, higher nutritional value, and require less water and less pesticides to produce.

<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li><p>WTR-CMI last week. In an up-week for the market, our WTR-CMI index of 30 chemical and material technology companies appreciated 4.8%, surpassing both the S&amp;P 500 and Russell 2000 returns of 2.3% and 3.7%, respectively.</p></li><li><p>FUL’s 13.2% appreciation led our index, as the company delivered strong margins in 2QFY23 (May- 23) and provided solid EBITDA guidance for the year.</p></li><li><p>The stock was also helped by FUL’s announcement of two bolt- on acquisitions, Adhezion Biomedical, a privately held medical adhesives company, and XCHEM International, a UAE specialty adhesives manufacturer with a strong position in MENA. </p></li></ul>

WTR-CMI last week. In an up-week for the market, our WTR-CMI index of 30 chemical and material technology companies appreciated 4.8%, surpassing both the S&amp;P 500 and Russell 2000 returns of 2.3% and 3.7%, respectively.FUL’s 13.2% appreciation led our index, as the company delivered strong margins in 2QFY23 (May- 23) and provided solid EBITDA guidance for the year.The stock was also helped by FUL’s announcement of two bolt- on acquisitions, Adhezion Biomedical, a privately held medical adhesives company, and XCHEM International, a UAE specialty adhesives manufacturer with a strong position in MENA. 

Mat-Chem Notes For the Week Ended June 30, 2023

<ul>
<li>WTR-CMI last week. In a week when the broad market index (Russell 2000) declined 3.6%, our WTR-CMI index of 30 chemicals and materials technology companies modestly outperformed, dropping 2.3%.</li>
<li>This nonetheless trailed the large-cap S&amp;P 500 index, which lost only 1.8% of its value during the week.</li>
<li>Benefiting from improved investor sentiment on possibly higher summer sales of insecticides, improving automotive and construction markets, and lower raw material costs that we discussed last week, ag-chem and coatings companies led the performance of our index.</li>
</ul>


WTR-CMI last week. In a week when the broad market index (Russell 2000) declined 3.6%, our WTR-CMI index of 30 chemicals and materials technology companies modestly outperformed, dropping 2.3%.
This nonetheless trailed the large-cap S&amp;P 500 index, which lost only 1.8% of its value during the week.
Benefiting from improved investor sentiment on possibly higher summer sales of insecticides, improving automotive and construction markets, and lower raw material costs that we discussed last week, ag-chem and coatings companies led the performance of our index.


United States

PPG Industries, Inc. supplies products for the manufacturing, construction, automotive, chemical processing, and other industries worldwide.  The Company makes protective and decorative coatings, flat glass, fabricated glass products, continuous-strand fiber glass products, and industrial and specialty chemicals.

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Ppg Industries (PPG US)

Industry Report - Chemicals & Materials Technology

WTR-CMI in 2023. With the majority of stocks in our index finishing the year in positive territory, the WTR-CMI Index managed to keep pace with the...

Water Tower Research

Mat-Chem Notes - For the Week Ended September 1, 2023

As we enter the final month of the third quarter, our index of 30 chemicals and materials technology stocks has underperformed the S&P 500 and the...

Water Tower Research

Mat Chem Notes Week Ending July 9, 2023

EAF was the index’s laggard, losing 9.4% of its value, possibly due to continued softness in the iron ore and steel production sectors.

Water Tower Research

Mat-Chem Notes For the Week Ended June 30, 2023

FUL’s 13.2% appreciation led our index, as the company delivered strong margins in 2QFY23 (May- 23) and provided solid EBITDA guidance for the year.

Water Tower Research

Industry Report - Chemicals & Materials Technology

In a week when the broad market index (Russell 2000) declined 3.6%, our WTR-CMI index of 30 chemicals and materials technology companies modestly...

Water Tower Research

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