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LANXESS Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:LXS), is not the largest company out there, but it received a lot of attention from a substantial price increase on the XTRA over the last few months. As a mid-cap stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the company’s outlook is already priced into the stock. However, could the stock still be trading at a relatively cheap price? Let’s take a look at LANXESS’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists.
See our latest analysis for LANXESS
What Is LANXESS Worth?
The share price seems sensible at the moment according to my price multiple model, where I compare the company's price-to-earnings ratio to the industry average. I’ve used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 12.26x is currently trading slightly above its industry peers’ ratio of 8.73x, which means if you buy LANXESS today, you’d be paying a relatively reasonable price for it. And if you believe that LANXESS should be trading at this level in the long run, then there should only be a fairly immaterial downside vs other industry peers. Although, there may be an opportunity to buy in the future. This is because LANXESS’s beta (a measure of share price volatility) is high, meaning its price movements will be exaggerated relative to the rest of the market. If the market is bearish, the company’s shares will likely fall by more than the rest of the market, providing a prime buying opportunity.
What kind of growth will LANXESS generate?
Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by 83% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for LANXESS. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.
What This Means For You
Are you a shareholder? LXS’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at LXS? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below the industry PE ratio?