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Phillips 66 (PSX) to Acquire 16% NOVONIX Stake for $150M

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Phillips 66 (PSX - Free Report) recently agreed to acquire a 16% interest in an Australian lithium-ion battery material supplier NOVONIX Limited, as the demand for electric vehicles’ (EV) batteries is expected to surge in the coming days. The deal is valued at $150 million and is supported by Emerging Energy organization, which is responsible for Phillips 66’s low-carbon business development.

Per the deal, one director will be nominated by Phillips 66 to NOVONIX’s board. NOVONIX is boosting synthetic graphite production capacity at Chattanooga, Tennessee, to 10,000 metric tons (mt) per annum by 2023. Investment from Phillips 66 is expected to further boost the capacity to 30,000 mt/annum by 2025.

Phillips 66’s oil refining business provides by-products that are used in developing carbon anodes and other substances for lithium-ion batteries. It manufactures a specialty coke, which is used for making batteries for electric vehicles. This February, the company made another deal with Faradion to develop high-performing anode substances for sodium-ion batteries at low cost.

With electric vehicles’ production increasing in the United States and abroad, investing in battery development materials is viewed as a prudent step by the company. The move will likely boost U.S. battery supply chain development. As such, the latest deal with NOVONIX is another milestone for the refining and marketing company toward investing in low-emission future.

Price Performance

The company has gained 12.6% in the past year, underperforming the 21.6% rise of the industry it belongs to.

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Zacks Rank & Key Picks

The company currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks from the energy space include Range Resources Corporation (RRC - Free Report) , Hess Corporation (HES - Free Report) and Summit Midstream Partners, LP , each having a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Range Resources’ earnings for 2021 is pegged at $1.53 per share, indicating a massive improvement from the year-ago loss of 9 cents.

Hess’ profits for 2021 are expected to jump 177.1% year over year.

Summit Midstream’s bottom line has witnessed two upward estimate revisions and no downward movement in the past 30 days.


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