Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

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.

Research from Water Tower Research

Equity Research Firm

Equity Bottom-Up

Rayonier Advanced Materials / Equity Bottom-Up

<div><ul><li>Pricing reset gains credibility. Cellulose Specialties pricing increased another 8% sequentially to $2,193/MT in 2Q26, up 21% Y/Y, while shipments recovered 19% from 1Q26 to 86K MT.</li><li>The simultaneous improvement in price and volume provides the first meaningful evidence that RYAM can preserve the economics of its 2026 pricing reset while gradually rebuilding shipments, although volumes remained 23% below the prior year.</li><li>Underlying demand looks better than reported volumes.</li></ul></div>

Pricing reset gains credibility. Cellulose Specialties pricing increased another 8% sequentially to $2,193/MT in 2Q26, up 21% Y/Y, while shipments recovered 19% from 1Q26 to 86K MT.The simultaneous improvement in price and volume provides the first meaningful evidence that RYAM can preserve the economics of its 2026 pricing reset while gradually rebuilding shipments, although volumes remained 23% below the prior year.Underlying demand looks better than reported volumes.

RYAM: From Pricing Reset to Volume Recovery; Testing the New HPC Economics