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Reasons to Retain Phibro Stock in Your Portfolio Now

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Phibro Animal Health Corporation’s (PAHC - Free Report) focus on advancing vaccine technologies is poised to drive growth in the upcoming quarters. The company’s global growth prospects look encouraging. Yet, adverse currency fluctuations and fierce competitive impacts are concerns for Phibro’s operations.

In the past year, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s shares have rallied 82.8% compared with the industry’s 9.6% growth and the S&P 500 composite's 26.7% increase.

The renowned animal health and mineral nutrition company has a market capitalization of $872 million. Its earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 25.47%.

Let’s delve deeper.

Phibro’s Key Tailwinds

Potential in Emerging Markets: Phibro’s existing operations and established sales, marketing and distribution network in over 80 countries provide it with ample scope to take advantage of global growth opportunities.

Outside the United States, Phibro’s global footprint extends to key high-growth regions, including Brazil and other countries in South America, China, India, Southeast Asia, Mexico, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Poland and other Eastern European countries, and South Africa and other countries in Africa. During the fiscal first quarter, the company’s operations in countries outside the United States contributed approximately 44.9% to its total revenues. 

Prospering Vaccine Business:  Phibro is focusing on new developments along with incremental registrations and growing volumes of existing vaccine technologies. The company also makes significant investments to expand vaccine manufacturing capacity at several locations. Recently, Phibro began operations at a new vaccine production facility in Guarulhos, Brazil, that manufactures and markets autogenous vaccines against animal diseases for swine, poultry and aquaculture.

The vaccine business witnessed a robust 22% improvement in the fiscal first quarter of 2025, driven by a strong uptake across various regions, especially in Latin America. It also benefited from growing domestic as well as international demand. The company launched new commercial vaccines and looks forward to bringing additional vaccines to the Americas. 

Phibro’s Key Headwinds

Foreign Exchange Headwinds: Phibro conducts operations globally, which entails transactions in a variety of currencies. In fiscal 2024, Phibro generated approximately 43% of its revenues from operations outside the United States. The company is exposed to changes in the cost of goods sold resulting from currency movements and may not be able to adjust its selling prices to offset such movements.

In fiscal 2024, both Phibro’s GAAP net income and GAAP diluted EPS decreased significantly due to foreign currency losses in the Argentine peso and Brazilian real. Management, in particular, believes that the currently strong U.S. dollar is affecting the company’s export market.

 

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Competitive Landscape: Phibro is engaged in highly competitive industries. It faces competition from a substantial and continually evolving number of global and regional competitors. PAHC’s competitive position is based principally on its product registrations, customer service and support, breadth of product line, product quality, manufacturing technology, facility location and product prices.

Moreover, consolidation continues to rise in the animal health market, which might work in favor of Phibro’s competitors. Thus, the company faces a tough competitive scenario in nearly all the markets wherein it operates.

Estimate Trend for Phibro

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 earnings per share (EPS) has moved 0.6% north to $1.62 in the past 30 days.

The consensus estimate for revenues is pegged at $1.18 billion, indicating a 15.6% rise from the year-ago reported number.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Omnicell (OMCL - Free Report) , Penumbra (PEN - Free Report) and ResMed (RMD - Free Report) .

Omnicell has an earnings yield of 3.7% compared to the industry’s 9.5%. Its earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 121.74%. OMCL’s shares have risen 15.2% against the industry’s 16.8% decline in the past year.

OMCL carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Penumbra, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, has an estimated 2024 earnings growth rate of 33.5% compared with the industry’s 15.9%. Shares of Penumbra have lost 5.3% against the industry’s 5.3% growth in the past year. PEN’s earnings surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed in one, the average surprise being 10.54%.

ResMed, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has an estimated earnings growth rate of 8.9% for fiscal 2025. Its shares have surged 33.4% compared with the industry’s 11.1% growth in the past year. RMD’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 6.41%. 

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