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Makes surfactants and specialty chemicals used in detergents, personal care products and agricultural formulations.
Makes surfactants and specialty chemicals used in detergents, personal care products and agricultural formulations.
Sells most of its output as surfactants, the cleaning agents in laundry and dish detergents, made from palm kernel oil, coconut oil and petrochemicals, so margins follow the gap between those raw-material costs and selling prices, which are partly passed on to customers. Polymers include polyols for insulation foam.
Moat: narrow (process know-how, customer qualification). Long-standing formulation relationships with major consumer products companies, in a competitive commodity-adjacent surfactant market.
Headquarters: Northfield, Illinois, US · Founded: 1932 · Employees: 2,328
Size Stepan (SCL) is a United States Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $1.52B, the 1981st largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $66.94 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 26.5%, against -21.4% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 10.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +7.4%); the operating margin is 3.6% (peer median 8.4%).
Valuation It trades at 19.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 16.9× (9th most expensive of 18).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 15% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +10 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 4.1 points below its cost of capital (8.7% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 3.0% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 18 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.53B | $2.33B | $2.18B | $2.33B | $2.77B |
| Revenue growth | — | +7% | -6% | -16% | — |
| Gross profit | $304M | $270M | $272M | $278M | $427M |
| EBITDA | $218M | $195M | $189M | $178M | $303M |
| Net income | $4.32M | $46.9M | $50.4M | $40.2M | $147M |
| Free cash flow | n/a | $25.4M | $39.3M | -$85.5M | -$141M |
| Capital expenditure | n/a | $123M | $123M | $260M | $302M |
| Total debt | $342M | $691M | $698M | $726M | $651M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stepan SCL | $1.52B | +26% | +10% | 4% | 19.0× | 14.9% |
| Croda International CRDA.L | $6.88B | +31% | +3% | 16% | 23.3× | 19.9% |
| Basf BAS.DE | $52.6B | +2% | -4% | 7% | 16.8× | 5.7% |
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 | SCL | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +9.7% | -14.6% | highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +26.5% | -21.4% | 2nd highest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -7.9% | -41.2% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +10.0% | +7.4% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 3.6% | 8.4% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 19.0× | 16.9× | 9th most expensive of 18 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 14.9% | 16.9% | 8th least demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.5% | +4.2% | 8th highest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +10.4 pp | +4.5 pp | 8th most demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -4.1 pp | -1.6 pp | 8th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 8.5× | 8.3× | 5th most expensive of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.6× | 0.9× | 4th most indebted of 11 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stepan SCL | United States | $1.52B | +26% | +10% | 4% | 19.0× | 14.9% | +4.5% |
| Osaka Soda 4046.T | Japan | $1.52B | -2% | +8% | 19% | 13.5× | 5.1% | +0.5% |
| Befar 6745.HK | Hong Kong | $1.52B | n/a | +25% | 5% | 9.7× | 3.6% | +17.3% |
| Denka 4061.T | Japan | $1.51B | -33% | -3% | 9% | 12.7× | n/a | n/a |
| KumhoPetrochem 011780.KS | South Korea | $1.50B | -37% | 0% | 7% | 4.3× | -16.5% | +7.5% |
| ADAMA 000553.SZ | China | $1.55B | -33% | -6% | 3% | 30.7× | -7.2% | +0.3% |
| Anhui Wanwei Updated High-Tech Material Industry 600063.SS | China | $1.49B | -32% | +3% | 4% | 20.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Shaily Engineering Plastics SHAILY.NS | India | $1.48B | +14% | +18% | 24% | 56.7× | 35.8% | +22.8% |
| Proto Labs PRLB | United States | $1.57B | -5% | +12% | 8% | 27.4× | 26.8% | +4.2% |
| Genesis Energy, L.P GEL | United States | $1.57B | -21% | -17% | 19% | n/a | 2.2% | -2.2% |
| Guangdong Dowstone Technology 300409.SZ | China | $1.59B | -50% | +34% | 6% | 14.0× | n/a | n/a |
| LOTTE CHEMICAL 011170.KS | South Korea | $1.45B | -59% | +5% | -2% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Elementis ELM.L | United Kingdom | $1.45B | +34% | -12% | 20% | 16.9× | 16.9% | -4.8% |
| Jilin OLED Material Tech 688378.SS | China | $1.45B | -17% | +74% | 18% | 28.1× | 46.2% | +15.2% |
| Guangdong Orient Zirconic Industry Science & Technology 002167.SZ | China | $1.44B | +5% | +17% | 14% | 48.5× | 32.4% | +10.1% |
| Anhui Guangxin Agrochemical 603599.SS | China | $1.43B | -29% | -13% | 18% | 13.1× | -3.8% | +0.6% |
| Tokuyama 4043.T | Japan | $1.63B | -11% | +7% | 9% | 5.8× | 1.1% | +2.9% |
| Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals CHAMBLFERT.NS | India | $1.63B | -15% | +6% | 12% | 7.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Huabao Technology 300741.SZ | China | $1.63B | +7% | +17% | 1% | n/a | 45.3% | -8.5% |
| Ningbo Yunsheng 600366.SS | China | $1.64B | -24% | +33% | 6% | 19.3× | 19.1% | +17.9% |
| Fujian Kuncai Material Technology 603826.SS | China | $1.64B | -51% | +59% | 5% | 61.0× | 24.1% | +11.0% |