Top Chemical Stocks To Invest In Right Now

The global chemical industry is valued at $3 trillion currently, and it will reach $5.5 trillion by the end of 2015 based on growing demand. Chemicals are used for a wide range of industries like automotive, aerospace, and construction. One of the leaders in the chemical manufacturing industry is Huntsman (HUN), and it has operations around the world. The company is framing its strategies to gain a higher market share and widen its global presence from the rising chemical market.

Company overview

Huntsman is a global chemical manufacturer and supplier of chemicals. Founded in 1970, it started off with the packaging business but later transformed into a chemical manufacturer. It offers products to an array of global industries including plastics, textiles, footwear, paints, construction, and technology. It is a global leader in supply of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, polyurethane catalyst, adhesives, insulating materials, and aerospace composites. It offers this wide range of products through five business segments:

Best Supermarket Stocks To Buy Right Now: Sensient Technologies Corp (SXT)

Sensient Technologies Corporation, incorporated on December 07, 1882, is a global manufacturer and marketer of colors, flavors and fragrances. Sensient uses advanced technologies at facilities around the world to develop specialty food and beverage systems, cosmetic and pharmaceutical systems, inkjet and specialty inks and colors, and other specialty and chemicals. The Company�� customers include international manufacturers representing some of the Known brands. The Company operates in two segments: Flavors & Fragrances Group and the Color Group. The Asia Pacific and the China Groups are included in the Corporate & Other category, along with the Company�� corporate expenses. The Company's principal products include: flavors, flavor enhancers and bionutrients; fragrances and aroma chemicals; dehydrated vegetables and other food ingredients; natural and synthetic food and beverage colors; cosmetic and pharmaceutical colors and additives; and technical colors, inkjet colors and inks, and specialty dyes and pigments.

Flavors & Fragrances Group

The Company is a developer, manufacturer and supplier of flavor and fragrance systems for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care and household-products industries. The Company�� flavor formulations are used in consumer products. Under the unified brand names of Sensient Flavors, Sensient Dehydrated Flavors and Sensient Fragrances, the Company is a supplier to multinational companies. The Flavors & Fragrances Group produces flavor and fragrance products, which impart a taste, texture, aroma and/or other characteristics to a range of consumer and other products. It includes the Company�� dehydrated flavors business, which produces ingredients for food processors. The products are systems products, including flavor-delivery systems, and compounded and blended products. In addition, the Company is engaged in selected ingredient products, such as essential oils, natural and synthetic flavors, and aroma chemicals. The Company ! serves food and non-food industries. In food industries, markets include savory, beverage, dairy, confectionery and bakery flavors. In non-food industries, the Company supplies fragrance products to the personal and home-care markets and supplies flavor products to the pharmaceuticals market.

Operating through the Company�� Sensient Dehydrated Flavors business, the Company is produces dehydrated onion and garlic products in the United States. The Company is also producers and distributors of chili powder, paprika, chili pepper and dehydrated vegetables, such as parsley, celery and spinach. Domestically, the Company sells dehydrated products to food manufacturers for use as ingredients and also for repackaging under private labels for sale to the retail market and to the food service industry. In addition, Sensient Dehydrated Flavors is dehydrators of specialty vegetables in Europe. The Flavors & Fragrances Group operates through the Company's subsidiaries Sensient Flavors LLC and Sensient Dehydrated Flavors LLC. The Company�� principal manufacturing plants are located in California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Belgium, Canada, the People�� Republic of China, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Color Group

The Company is a developer, manufacturer and supplier of colors for businesses globally. The Company provides natural and synthetic color systems for use in foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals; colors and other ingredients for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and technical colors for industrial applications and digital imaging. The Company sells its synthetic and natural colors to domestic and international producers of beverages, bakery products, processed foods, confections, pet foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The Company also makes inkjet inks and other dyes and pigments used in a variety of non-food applications.

The Color Group operates through the Company's subsidiary Sensient Col! ors LLC. ! Its principal manufacturing plants are located in California, Missouri, New Jersey, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The Color Group operates under trade names of Sensient Food Colors (food and beverage colors); Sensient Pharmaceutical Coating Systems (pharmaceutical colors and coatings); Sensient Cosmetic Technologies (cosmetic colors and ingredients and systems). and Sensient Industrial Colors (including paper colors; industrial colors for plastics, leather, wood stains, antifreeze and other uses; inkjet colors and inks; specialty inks, and display imaging).

Asia Pacific and China Groups

The Asia Pacific Group and the China Group focus on marketing the Company�� diverse product line in the Pacific Rim under the Sensient name. Through these operations, the Company offers a range of products from its Flavors & Fragrances Group and Color Group, as well as products developed by regional technical teams to appeal to local preferences. Sales, marketing and technical functions are managed through the Asia Pacific Group's headquarters in Australia. Manufacturing operations are located in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines. The Asia Pacific Group maintains offices for research and development, as well as sales, in India, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Sensient Technologies (NYSE: SXT  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Chemical Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Uralkaliy OAO (URALL.PK)

Uralkaliy OAO (Uralkali OJSC) is a Russia-based company, which is engaged in the chemical industry. The Company specializes in the production of potash fertilizers. Its product portfolio comprises pink muriate of potash (PMOP), white muriate of potash (WMOP) and granular (GMOP). The Company is active through representative offices, located in Moscow and Beijing, as well as numerous subsidiaries, located countrywide and in Panama, Belarus, Singapore, Brazil and others. Uralkaliy OAO operates on the potassium and magnesium deposits located in Berezniki, Perm and Saint Petersburg. Its production assets include seven plants and five mines. Uralkaliy OAO sells its products domestically, as well as abroad in over 40 countries, including the United States, China, Brazil, India and South-East Asia, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chris Damas]

  This morning Russian potash giant OJSC Uralkali (URALL.PK) presented first half 2013 financial and operating results and more importantly, much anticipated comments on the strategy of the company and the state of the international potash industry, the latter blind-sided by the leading potash company's split with marketing partner JSC Belaruskali of Belarus.

Top Chemical Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APD)

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. provides atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials, equipment, and services worldwide. The company?s Merchant Gases segment sells atmospheric gases, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and argon; process gases, including hydrogen and helium; and medical and specialty gases for the metal, glass, chemical processing, food processing, healthcare, steel, general manufacturing, and petroleum and natural gas industries. This segment also offers respiratory therapies, home medical equipment, and infusion services primarily in Europe. Its Tonnage Gases segment provides hydrogen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, oxygen, and syngas to the energy production and refining, chemical, and metallurgical industries; and produces dinitrotoluene used in the manufacture of a precursor of polyurethane foam. The company?s Electronics and Performance Materials segment offers nitrogen trifluoride, silane, arsine, phosphine, white ammonia, silicon tetra fluoride, carbon tetrafluoride, hexafluoromethane, critical etch gases, and tungsten hexafluoride; and tonnage gases, specialty chemicals, and services and equipment for the manufacture of silicon and compound semiconductors, thin film transistor liquid crystal displays, and photovoltaic devices. This segment also provides performance materials for a range of products, including coatings, inks, adhesives, civil engineering, personal care, institutional and industrial cleaning, mining, oil refining, and polyurethanes. Its Equipment and Energy segment designs and manufactures cryogenic equipment for air separation, hydrocarbon recovery and purification, natural gas liquefaction, and helium distribution; and offers plant design, engineering, procurement, and construction management services for the chemical and petrochemical manufacturing, oil and gas recovery and processing, and steel and primary metals processing industries. The company was founded in 1940 and is based in All entown, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Cash Flow Investor]

  Since then, I've seen the lesson of Royal Dutch Shell play out for other companies. One company I've considered from time to time is Air Products and Chemicals (APD), which shows up on the screens of many dividend growth investors. Looking at the payout ratio as traditionally calculated (i.e., dividend divided by net income), there seems to be sufficient coverage of the dividend:

Top Chemical Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP (RNF)

Rentech Nitrogen Partners, L.P. is a provider of clean energy solutions and nitrogen fertilizer, to own, operate and grow its nitrogen fertilizer business. The Company primarily produces anhydrous ammonia, or ammonia, and urea ammonium nitrate solution (UAN), at the Company�� facility, using natural gas as its primary feedstock. In November 2012, the Company acquired Agrifos LLC.

The Company�� facility is located in the center of the Mid Corn Belt. The Mid Corn Belt includes the States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Ohio. The Company considers its market to be consisted of the States of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Meanwhile, the fine print in the 10-K of Rentech Nitrogen Partners (NYSE: RNF  ) noted that every increase of $0.10 per MMBtu of natural gas increases its production costs by $3.50 per ton of ammonia produced. Natural gas futures have increased by $2.10 per MMBtu since April 2012, which calls for an eye-popping experiment.

• [By Neha Chamaria]

  That being said, hedging remains inevitable. After all, it is better to be safe than sorry. And it's not just CF that believes so. Rentech Nitrogen (NYSE: RNF  ) , a smaller but pure-nitrogen player, has already locked in 43% of its full-year gas requirements at an average cost of $4 per MMBtu. Rentech paid $3.98 per MMBtu of gas this past quarter. As for CF, it has hedged 90% of requirements through July. So investors shouldn't panic if gas prices rise.

Top Chemical Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Celanese Corporation (CE)

Celanese Corporation, a technology and specialty materials company, engages in manufacture and sale of value-added chemicals, thermoplastic polymers, and other chemical-based products. It operates through four business segments: Advanced Engineered Materials, Consumer Specialties, Industrial Specialties, and Acetyl Intermediates. The Advanced Engineered Materials segment offers specialty polymers for application in automotive, medical, and electronics products, as well as other consumer and industrial applications. The Consumer Specialties segment provides cellulose acetate flake, film, and tow that are primarily used in filter products applications; Sunett, a sweetener; and food protection ingredients, such as sorbates and sorbic acid for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. The Industrial Specialties segment produces emulsions and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) performance polymers. Its emulsions products are used in applications, such as paints and coatings, adhesives, construction, glass fiber, textiles, and paper; and EVA performance polymers are used in flexible packaging films, lamination film products, hot melt adhesives, medical products, automotive, carpeting and photovoltaic cells. The Acetyl Intermediates segment offers acetyl products, including acetic acid, vinyl acetate monomer, acetic anhydride, and acetate esters for use as starting materials for colorants, paints, adhesives, coatings, and medicines. It also provides organic solvents and intermediates for pharmaceutical, agricultural, and chemical products. The company offers its products directly, as well as through distributors and electronic marketplaces in North America, Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and South America. Celanese Corporation was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Celanese (NYSE: CE) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $1.04 per share on revenue of $1.59 billion.

  Posted-In: Earnings scheduleEarnings News Pre-Market Outlook Markets

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Chemical products manufacturer Celanese (CE) raised its quarterly dividend 39% to 25 cents per share payable payable on May 16 to shareholders of record May 5.
  CE Dividend Yield: 1.69%

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Celanese (NYSE: CE  ) will have to pony up a significantly higher amount of money for its shareholder payouts. The company has declared a common stock dividend of $0.18 per share, to be paid on August 15 to shareholders of record as of August 5. That amount is exactly double the company's previous distribution of $0.09.

• [By Magic Diligence]

  Given this fact, and the fact that consumer electronics (CE) is a cyclical industry, flash supply and demand balance is very tenuous. Frantic production to catch up to demand often leads to dramatic over-supply when the CE market cools off. One needs only to look at SanDisk's financials to see this. The company swung from a $917 dollar operations loss in 2008 to a $1.5 billion dollar profit in 2011, and which was then cut in half to just a $700 million profit the following year!

Top Chemical Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Balchem Corp (BCPC)

Balchem Corporation incorporated on Jan 30, 1967, is engaged in the development, manufacture and marketing of specialty performance ingredients and products for the food, nutritional, feed, pharmaceutical and medical sterilization industries. The Company operates in three segments: Specialty Products, Food, Pharma & Nutrition and Animal Nutrition & Health. The Company sells its products through its own sales force, independent distributors and sales agents. The Company operates five wholly owned domestic subsidiaries, such as BCP Ingredients, Inc., Aberco, Inc., Balchem BV, Balchem Trading BV and Balchem Italia Srl.

Food, Pharma & Nutrition

The Food, Pharma & Nutrition (FPN) segment provides microencapsulation solutions to a variety of applications in food, pharmaceutical and nutritional ingredients to enhance performance of nutritional fortification, processing, mixing, and packaging applications and shelf-life. Major product applications are baked goods, refrigerated and frozen dough systems, processed meats, seasoning blends, confections, and nutritional supplements. The Company also markets human grade choline nutrient products through this segment for wellness applications.

Specialty Products

The Company's Specialty Products segment operates in industry as ARC Specialty Products. Ethylene oxide, at the 100% level, is sold as a sterilant gas, primarily for use in the health care industry. It is used to sterilize a wide range of medical devices because of its versatility and effectiveness in treating hard or soft surfaces, composites, metals, tubing and different types of plastics. The Company's 100% ethylene oxide product is distributed in uniquely designed, recyclable, double-walled, stainless steel drums. Contract sterilizers, medical device manufacturers, and medical gas distributors are the Company's principal customers for this product. In addition, the Company also sells single use canisters with 100% ethylene oxide for uses in medical dev! ice sterilization.

The Company markets and sells propylene oxide as a fumigant to aids in the control of insects and microbiological spoilage and to reduce bacterial and mold contamination in shell and processed nut meats (except peanuts), processed spices, cacao beans, cocoa powder, raisins, figs and prunes. The Company distributes its propylene oxide product primarily in recyclable, single-walled, carbon steel cylinders The Company also sells propylene oxide to customers seeking smaller quantities and whose requirements include utilization in various chemical synthesis applications, to make paints more durable and for manufacturing specialty starches and textile coatings.

Animal Nutrition & Health

The Company's Animal Nutrition & Health (ANH) segment provides the animal nutrition and health markets with products derived from the Company's microencapsulation, chelation, and basic choline chloride technologies. Commercial sales of REASHURE Choline, a microencapsulated choline, NITROSHURETM, a microencapsulated urea, and NIASHURETM, the Company's microencapsulated niacin for dairy cows, boosts health and milk production in transition and lactating dairy cows, delivering nutrient supplements that survive the rumen and are biologically available, providing required nutritional levels. The Company's AMINOSHURE-L product, a rumen-protected lysine for use in dairy rations, gives nutritionists and dairy producers a precise and consistent source of rumen-protected lysine. The Company also markets chelated mineral supplements for uses in animal feed throughout the world. ANH also manufactures and supplies basic choline chloride, an essential nutrient for animal health, predominantly to the poultry and swine industries. The ANH segment also includes choline and certain derivatives manufactured and sold into various industrial applications, predominately as a component for hydraulic fracturing of shale natural gas wells, and methylamines which are a primary building block fo! r the man! ufacture of choline products and are also used in a wide range of industrial applications.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Balchem (NASDAQ: BCPC) surged 13.56% to $59.19. The volume of Balchem shares traded 499% higher than normal. Balchem announced its plans to aquire SensoryEffects for $567 million.