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Specialty chemicals maker producing surfactants, PEG-based drug-delivery materials and safety/explosive systems.
Specialty chemicals maker producing surfactants, PEG-based drug-delivery materials and safety/explosive systems.
In one line: A niche specialty-chemicals and drug-delivery-materials maker.
Moat: narrow (IP / patents, process know-how). Proprietary PEGylation chemistry used in drug-delivery formulations is a differentiated niche.
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan · Founded: 1929 · Employees: 4,155
Size NOF (4403.T) is a Japan Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $3.60B, the 317th largest of 1,379 Japan companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at ¥2,510 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 21.8%, against -21.9% for the median peer and +1.8% for the Japan market (cap-weighted) — 11th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 13.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +12.9%); the operating margin is 17.1% (peer median 12.0%).
Valuation It trades at 13.5× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.1× (5th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -6% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +8%, so the hurdle is -14 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 8.7 points above its cost of capital (5.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 10 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥271B | ¥258B | ¥238B | ¥222B | ¥218B |
| Revenue growth | — | +8% | +7% | +2% | — |
| Gross profit | ¥88.4B | ¥90.1B | ¥86.1B | ¥80.4B | ¥76.8B |
| EBITDA | ¥76.7B | ¥69.5B | ¥53.3B | ¥49.1B | ¥47.0B |
| Net income | ¥39.5B | ¥40.6B | ¥36.5B | ¥34.0B | ¥34.0B |
| Free cash flow | n/a | ¥21.5B | ¥12.6B | ¥12.2B | ¥17.1B |
| Capital expenditure | n/a | ¥14.4B | ¥16.3B | ¥17.7B | ¥6.22B |
| Total debt | ¥4.31B | ¥5.14B | ¥5.04B | ¥5.17B | ¥4.84B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOF 4403.T | $3.60B | -22% | +13% | 17% | 13.5× | -6.1% |
| Croda International CRDA.L | $6.88B | +31% | +3% | 16% | 23.3× | 19.9% |
| Daicel 4202.T | $2.48B | +24% | +2% | 7% | 11.1× | 6.1% |
| Evonik Industries EVK.DE | $11.0B | +19% | +2% | 10% | 12.0× | -6.2% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | 4403.T | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -1.9% | -5.1% | 8th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -21.8% | -21.9% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -26.2% | -42.2% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +13.2% | +12.9% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 17.1% | 12.0% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 13.5× | 22.1× | 5th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -6.1% | 15.2% | 2nd least demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +8.4% | +12.7% | 6th lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -14.5 pp | -3.9 pp | 3rd least demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +8.7 pp | -0.3 pp | 2nd highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.6× | 10.3× | 2nd cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -0.8× | 1.4× | least indebted of 6 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOF 4403.T | Japan | $3.60B | -22% | +13% | 17% | 13.5× | -6.1% | +8.4% |
| Cabot CBT | United States | $3.67B | -17% | +1% | 14% | 10.9× | -3.2% | +1.9% |
| Ningbo Shanshan 600884.SS | China | $3.71B | -34% | +30% | 9% | 14.4× | 4.5% | +21.3% |
| Novoray 688300.SS | China | $3.76B | -9% | +23% | 26% | 52.7× | 47.6% | +22.6% |
| Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 4182.T | Japan | $3.78B | -31% | +3% | 8% | 10.6× | n/a | n/a |
| Guangzhou Guanggang Gases and Energy 688548.SS | China | $3.39B | -14% | +21% | 20% | 62.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Pangang Group Vanadium & Titanium Resources 000629.SZ | China | $3.83B | -24% | +6% | 4% | 68.8× | 27.2% | -3.4% |
| Inner Mongolia Berun Chemical 000683.SZ | China | $3.36B | -32% | +11% | 13% | 13.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Hangzhou Oxygen Plant 002430.SZ | China | $3.89B | -16% | +16% | 11% | 20.9× | 2.9% | +8.5% |
| IMEIK Technology Development 300896.SZ | China | $3.92B | -21% | -7% | 45% | 23.3× | 18.8% | +28.0% |
| Hexpol HPOL-B.ST | Sweden | $3.30B | +28% | -1% | 14% | 15.6× | 3.1% | +7.6% |
| Air Water 4088.T | Japan | $3.93B | +23% | +7% | 4% | 14.3× | 7.1% | +6.8% |
| Bluestar Adisseo 600299.SS | China | $3.97B | -35% | +15% | 13% | 11.8× | -8.6% | +7.7% |
| Do-Fluoride New Materials 002407.SZ | China | $4.06B | -36% | +69% | 7% | 38.0× | 19.2% | +17.5% |
| Levima Advanced Materials 003022.SZ | China | $3.17B | -34% | +66% | 10% | 30.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Hawkins HWKN | United States | $3.14B | -10% | +9% | 11% | 33.9× | 15.2% | +12.7% |
| Luxi Chemical 000830.SZ | China | $3.13B | -36% | -1% | 4% | 12.1× | -1.4% | +10.6% |
| Shanghai Haoyuan Chemexpress 688131.SS | China | $3.11B | +30% | +28% | 13% | 59.6× | 32.0% | +35.2% |
| Cathay Biotech 688065.SS | China | $4.22B | -19% | +9% | 18% | 38.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Jiangsu Nata Opto-electronic Material 300346.SZ | China | $4.29B | -22% | +15% | 16% | 62.1× | 35.6% | +34.2% |
| XTC New Energy Materials (Xiamen) 688778.SS | China | $3.01B | -52% | +78% | 4% | 19.2× | 16.0% | +20.0% |