Is the business good?
How good a business is SCL?
Stepan Company earns 0.03% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
0.03%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 9.0 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 0.03%
Operating margin · Specialty Chemicals median 9.1% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Share count, year on year
- −0.01%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
- Gross margin
- 11%
Gross margin
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 9.2% |
| FY2021 | 7.3% |
| FY2022 | 7.5% |
| FY2023 | 2.5% |
| FY2024 | 3.2% |
| FY2025 | 3.4% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 11%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 0.03%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- −0.61%
- Free cash flow margin
- 1.6%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $2.34B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $37M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- −$14M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 0.03%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Specialty Chemicals
Ranks #27 of 36 by Smart Score