# Lsb Industries (LXU.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/LXU

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:30:00.078Z. Financial observations: FY1996–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $10.46 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $7.77 per share, central $8.44 per share, high $9.35 per share. Buy at or below the central value $8.44 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:30:00.078Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 8.1% at the stated quote. About 8.1% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 5 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 5

- Years with a net loss: 5

- Operating margin variation: 2.58×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -0.08×

- FY2018: -0.06×

- FY2019: -0.11×

- FY2020: -0.04×

- FY2021: 0.18×

- FY2022: 0.34×

- FY2023: 0.09×

- FY2024: -0.01×

- FY2025: 0.10×

- LTM to Jun 2026: 0.10×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -0.9%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -3.3%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -7.5 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 7.0%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 14.5%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 9.8%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -0.9%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -7.1%

- FY2017: -2.7%

- FY2018: -1.9%

- FY2019: -3.3%

- FY2020: -1.3%

- FY2021: 10.8%

- FY2022: 30.5%

- FY2023: 5.1%

- FY2024: -0.5%

- FY2025: 5.5%

### economics: pass

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.15×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $352M

- Net income, five-year total: $307M

- Return on incremental invested capital: 2179.7%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.8 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -6.8 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 7.1%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.80×

- FY2022: 1.10×

- FY2023: 1.05×

- FY2024: 1.93×

- FY2025: 1.18×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -2.7% vs 5.1%

- Per-share earnings: -0.82 to 0.34 (three-year endpoint medians)

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 9.4%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 14.6%

- Market cap gain: $336M

- Cumulative retained earnings: -$82M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 9.4%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 14.6%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $1.16

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.82

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $0.34

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.12

- Average buyback yield: 2.5%

- Buyback history: 10 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: $1.4M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $192M

- ROIC, first three-year median: -2.7%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 5.1%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $3.39

- FY2017: -$0.82

- FY2018: -$2.02

- FY2019: -$1.74

- FY2020: -$1.69

- FY2021: $0.87

- FY2022: $2.68

- FY2023: $0.37

- FY2024: -$0.27

- FY2025: $0.34

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -6.0%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.25×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 7.7%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 3.88×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.00×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 10.7%

- FY2017: -2.5%

- FY2018: -7.8%

- FY2019: -6.0%

- FY2020: -5.6%

- FY2021: -3.9%

- FY2022: -8.0%

- FY2023: -8.4%

- FY2024: -8.9%

- FY2025: -6.0%

## Holders

- [Matthew McLennan](https://gigainvestors.com/FE): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Martin Whitman](https://gigainvestors.com/TA): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 52% since Mar 2022 · sales +7%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:06.831Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

Price needs cash profits to grow 4.7% a year for ten years

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +7%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2017: $428M 

- FY2018: $378M 

- FY2019: $365M 

- FY2020: $351M 

- FY2021: $556M 

- FY2022: $902M 

- FY2023: $594M 

- FY2024: $522M 

- FY2025: $615M 

- FY2026: $658M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 17%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2017: 1.3% 

- FY2018: 4.2% 

- FY2019: 1.4% 

- FY2020: 4.9% 

- FY2021: 25.0% 

- FY2022: 38.6% 

- FY2023: 14.5% 

- FY2024: 9.1% 

- FY2025: 17.0% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in chemicals; annual sales are USD 615.2 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: revenue 615208000; grossProfit 104302000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-05); LXU.US: LSB Industries, Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells chemical products in the United States. The company offers ammonia and urea ammonia nitrate for agricultural applications. It also provides high purity and commercial grade ammonia, high purity ammonium nitrate, sulfuric acids, concentrated, blended and regular nitric acid, mixed nitrating acids, carbon dioxide, industrial grade ammonium nitrate, and ammonium nitrate for industrial applications. It sells its products to farmers, ranchers, fertilizer dealers, and distributors primarily in the ranch land and grain production markets, as well as industrial users of acids and explosive manufacturers. LSB Industries, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 9.1% to 17% during 2023–25; it lost 0.9% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 14.5%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 9.1%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 17%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,-0.07085366956836385],[2017,-0.026998847140909457],[2018,-0.019104993834642377],[2019,-0.032859856183084596],[2020,-0.013295168082020083],[2021,0.10769561982960202],[2022,0.3047470983377912],[2023,0.051242022567303494],[2024,-0.0052167138283490695],[2025,0.05515612018436577]]; median -0.009255940955184576. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 6 of 10 years; bought back USD 2.4 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2017: growth capex 0; upkeep 35425000; owner earnings 4454000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 35128000; owner earnings 78360000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 45833000; owner earnings 252533000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2023: growth capex 0; upkeep 67603000; owner earnings 29242000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 77461000; owner earnings 29082000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Dividend observations: [[2016,8028000],[2017,0],[2018,2777000],[2019,1876000],[2020,1876000],[2021,1876000],[2022,135000],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: cash repurchases 2439000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 18.7% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-05); LXU.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 18.682000000000002 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-05.

### What the price says

The price assumes cash profits grow 4.7% yearly over ten years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Ten-year compound average after fade. Initial solved rate 0.055039047676108496. Price 10.46; FX 1; discount 0.1; same standard ten-year fade to terminal 0.03. FY2015 owner earnings/share -14.769049551659393 → FY2025 0.4019015768162408. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $5.29 per share

- 2016-11: $7.70 per share

- 2016-12: $8.42 per share

- 2017-01: $8.51 per share

- 2017-02: $10.87 per share

- 2017-03: $9.38 per share

- 2017-04: $11.02 per share

- 2017-05: $8.79 per share

- 2017-06: $10.33 per share

- 2017-07: $7.08 per share

- 2017-08: $6.10 per share

- 2017-09: $7.94 per share

- 2017-10: $7.55 per share

- 2017-11: $9.01 per share

- 2017-12: $8.76 per share

- 2018-01: $8.49 per share

- 2018-02: $7.47 per share

- 2018-03: $6.13 per share

- 2018-04: $5.53 per share

- 2018-05: $5.07 per share

- 2018-06: $5.30 per share

- 2018-07: $6.57 per share

- 2018-08: $8.72 per share

- 2018-09: $9.78 per share

- 2018-10: $7.60 per share

- 2018-11: $7.67 per share

- 2018-12: $5.52 per share

- 2019-01: $7.45 per share

- 2019-02: $7.05 per share

- 2019-03: $6.24 per share

- 2019-04: $5.85 per share

- 2019-05: $3.35 per share

- 2019-06: $3.90 per share

- 2019-07: $4.99 per share

- 2019-08: $4.67 per share

- 2019-09: $5.18 per share

- 2019-10: $4.23 per share

- 2019-11: $3.96 per share

- 2019-12: $4.20 per share

- 2020-01: $3.02 per share

- 2020-02: $1.95 per share

- 2020-03: $2.10 per share

- 2020-04: $1.99 per share

- 2020-05: $1.08 per share

- 2020-06: $1.16 per share

- 2020-07: $1.05 per share

- 2020-08: $2.18 per share

- 2020-09: $1.62 per share

- 2020-10: $2.23 per share

- 2020-11: $2.51 per share

- 2020-12: $3.39 per share

- 2021-01: $3.27 per share

- 2021-02: $4.45 per share

- 2021-03: $5.13 per share

- 2021-04: $5.99 per share

- 2021-05: $6.29 per share

- 2021-06: $6.05 per share

- 2021-07: $8.80 per share

- 2021-08: $8.24 per share

- 2021-09: $10.21 per share

- 2021-10: $8.93 per share

- 2021-11: $9.01 per share

- 2021-12: $11.05 per share

- 2022-01: $9.72 per share

- 2022-02: $17.30 per share

- 2022-03: $21.84 per share

- 2022-04: $21.41 per share

- 2022-05: $20.12 per share

- 2022-06: $13.86 per share

- 2022-07: $13.81 per share

- 2022-08: $15.78 per share

- 2022-09: $14.25 per share

- 2022-10: $17.63 per share

- 2022-11: $15.43 per share

- 2022-12: $13.30 per share

- 2023-01: $12.71 per share

- 2023-02: $13.59 per share

- 2023-03: $10.33 per share

- 2023-04: $8.93 per share

- 2023-05: $9.30 per share

- 2023-06: $9.85 per share

- 2023-07: $11.17 per share

- 2023-08: $10.12 per share

- 2023-09: $10.23 per share

- 2023-10: $9.11 per share

- 2023-11: $8.57 per share

- 2023-12: $9.31 per share

- 2024-01: $7.44 per share

- 2024-02: $7.36 per share

- 2024-03: $8.78 per share

- 2024-04: $9.30 per share

- 2024-05: $9.81 per share

- 2024-06: $8.18 per share

- 2024-07: $9.11 per share

- 2024-08: $7.93 per share

- 2024-09: $8.04 per share

- 2024-10: $8.20 per share

- 2024-11: $8.83 per share

- 2024-12: $7.59 per share

- 2025-01: $8.44 per share

- 2025-02: $7.33 per share

- 2025-03: $6.59 per share

- 2025-04: $6.38 per share

- 2025-05: $7.57 per share

- 2025-06: $7.80 per share

- 2025-07: $7.73 per share

- 2025-08: $8.32 per share

- 2025-09: $7.88 per share

- 2025-10: $8.43 per share

- 2025-11: $8.93 per share

- 2025-12: $8.50 per share

- 2026-01: $9.29 per share

- 2026-02: $11.62 per share

- 2026-03: $14.90 per share

- 2026-04: $14.90 per share

- 2026-05: $12.54 per share

- 2026-06: $10.81 per share

- 2026-07: $10.88 per share

- 2026-08: $10.67 per share

- 2026-09: $9.77 per share

- 2026-10: $10.46 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2023: low $8.17 per share, central $8.76 per share, high $9.54 per share

- FY2024: low $6.32 per share, central $6.86 per share, high $7.58 per share

- FY2025: low $6.46 per share, central $7.09 per share, high $7.93 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/60714/000119312526076810/lxu-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-26.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.