Kronos Worldwide Earnings Miss Estimates in Q3 on Lower Volumes

Kronos Worldwide, Inc. KRO reported a third-quarter 2025 net loss of $37 million or 32 cents per share. This compares unfavorably to profits of $71.8 million, or 62 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Barring one-time items, adjusted loss came in at 18 cents per share, which was wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 6 cents.

Net sales decreased around 6% year over year to $456.9 million. The decline was mainly due to lower average titanium dioxide (TiO2) selling prices and reduced sales volumes in the company’s European and export markets, partly offset by higher sales volumes in the North American market. The top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $478.5 million.

KRO saw softer customer demand in the reported quarter, continuing the weakness that started earlier this year. High interest rates and economic uncertainties due to trade tensions and tariffs continued to contribute to cautious customer spending.

Kronos Worldwide Inc Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Kronos Worldwide Inc price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Kronos Worldwide Inc Quote

KRO’s Volumes and Pricing

TiO2 production volumes (thousand metric tons) were down roughly 11% year over year to 126 in the third quarter. TiO2 sales volumes (thousand metric tons) declined around 3% to 126 in the quarter.

TiO2 segment loss was $15.3 million in the reported quarter compared with a segment profit of $43.4 million a year ago. The downside was mainly due to reduced income from operations as a result of unfavorable fixed cost absorption stemming from reduced operating rates at certain of KRO’s manufacturing facilities and increased cost inventory produced in the second quarter relative to the year-ago quarter.

KRO’s Financials

Kronos ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $27.7 million, up around 47% from the prior quarter. Long-term debt amounted to $626.2 million, up around 25% sequentially.

KRO’s Outlook

The company does not envision sales volumes to improve meaningfully in the near term. It is taking additional actions in the fourth quarter to reduce inventory levels through the reduction of operating rates to better align with current demand levels amid the subdued demand environment. KRO expects these actions to improve operating cash flows as it focuses on boosting liquidity to navigate through the current demand environment. The company is also implementing additional cost reduction initiatives to improve its cost structure.

Kronos anticipates operating results in the fourth quarter to be lower than the third quarter and also expects to report lower year-over-year operating results for full-year 2025, factoring in lower-than-expected demand, continued pricing pressure and lower fixed cost absorption due to reduced operating rates.

KRO’s Zacks Rank & Other Chemical Releases

KRO currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Chemours Company’s CC third-quarter adjusted earnings were 20 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 24 cents. Chemours expects fourth-quarter net sales to fall 10-15% sequentially due to seasonality. 

Element Solutions Inc. ESI logged third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 41 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 39 cents. ESI anticipates full-year 2025 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $545 million to $550 million.

Huntsman Corporation’s HUN adjusted loss per share was 3 cents compared with earnings of 10 cents in the year-ago quarter. It was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 13 cents. HUN’s restructuring programs, which are expected to deliver more than $100 million in savings, remain on course and are expected to be completed this year. 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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