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Koppers Holdings

KOP
47
Chemicals - Specialty · Basic Materials
Price
$49.14
+0.09 (+0.18%)
Market Cap
$945.1M
Winston Score
47
Winston is serious
Mixed quality — meaningful strengths and weaknesses.

Share count falling — buybacks

6.9% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 21.9M (2021) → 20.4M (2025)

Koppers Holdings is a chemical company that turns coal tar and wood into treated products used to build and maintain railroads, utility poles, and other infrastructure. Its main products include railroad crossties (the wooden beams that hold train tracks in place), utility poles, and carbon compounds made from coal tar. Customers include major railroads, electric utilities, and industrial manufacturers across North America, Europe, and Australia.

The company earns money by selling treated wood products and chemical materials, with pricing tied closely to raw material costs like coal tar and timber. Koppers operates across three business segments and generates roughly $2 billion in annual revenue, with a meaningful share coming from long-term contracts with large railroad and utility customers, which provides some stability. The biggest risk the company faces is volatility in raw material costs and the long-term uncertainty around railroad maintenance spending, which can slow demand for its core products.

Winston Score History

Score breakdown

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Quality

Gross Margin
0.0%
Thin — 0.0% gross margin
Operating Margin
4.8%
Thin — 4.8% operating margin
ROCE
1.4%
Weak — 1.4% return on capital

ROIC between 0% and 5%. They earn a few cents back per dollar invested in the business.

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Growth

Sales YoY
-8.4%
Shrinking sales (-8.4% YoY)
EPS YoY
+220.5%
Earnings growing fast (220.5% YoY)

Earnings growing 25%+ a year. The compounder zone.

EPS Consistency
6/8 quarters
Earnings grew in most of the last 8 quarters

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Cash Flow

Cash Conversion
249%
Turns 249% of profit into real cash
FCF Margin
7.4%
Modest free cash flow (7.4%)

FCF margin between 0% and 10%. Some cash from sales, but not a lot.

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Stability

Debt / Equity
1.86
Elevated debt (1.86)
Interest Cover
3.62x
Tight — interest eats into profit (3.6x)

Interest coverage between 3 and 8. Profits cover interest several times over.

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Valuation

P/E Ratio (TTM)
12.6x
Attractive valuation — P/E 12.6

P/E in the normal range. Price is roughly $15 for every $1 of yearly profit.

P/E vs Forward
+0.7
GROWING
Earnings roughly flat

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Dividends

Dividend Yield
0.69%
Small dividend — 0.69% yield

Modest yield. The bulk of any return needs to come from price appreciation.

Dividend Growth
+13.3%
Dividend growing fast (13.3% YoY)

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