Eastman Chemical (EMN) Tops Q2 EPS by 15c; offers outlook

Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN) reported Q2 EPS of $1.97, $0.15 better than the analyst estimate of $1.82. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.51 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.4 billion.

2026 Outlook

Commenting on the outlook for full-year 2026, Costa said: “Our team has demonstrated agility in the first half and is focused on building on the momentum and solid results delivered in the first half of 2026, despite the constantly changing impact of the Middle East conflict and continued weak demand in key discretionary end markets. We remain focused on driving growth through innovation, which is expected to be the primary driver of our specialty growth for the year. A key contributor to our innovation-driven growth is our Kingsport methanolysis facility, which continues to build strategic momentum. We also delivered solid growth through our innovation across weak discretionary end markets. We continue to see modest growth across stable end markets. Our commercial teams demonstrated excellence in successfully implementing price increases in our specialties to offset higher raw material and distribution costs and expect a modest tailwind from these actions in the back half. In our Chemical Intermediates segment, we have benefited from significant spread expansion due to the impact on supply chains of the Middle East conflict and substantially more volume to sell this year. We also remain on track to reduce costs between $125 million and $150 million, net of inflation, and are maintaining disciplined capital expenditures by spending approximately $400 million this year. When putting all of these factors together, we remain confident we can significantly improve earnings in 2026 versus 2025. On cash, the inflationary environment is putting pressure on accounts receivable. As a result, we now expect operating cash flow to approach $900 million, which is modestly below our previous expectation of approaching 2025 levels.

“Looking specifically at the sequential third-quarter 2026 outlook, we start with Advanced Materials, where we expect EBIT to be higher driven by improved price-cost and improved asset utilization. We also expect higher earnings in Fibers as acetate tow volume increases, with customers increasing purchases to meet their annual contracts. Additives & Functional Products earnings are expected to decline modestly due to seasonally lower volume, particularly in the agriculture market. Chemical Intermediates earnings are expected to modestly decline as the impact of supply chain disruptions lessens. When putting these factors together, we project third-quarter adjusted EPS to approach second-quarter 2026 EPS of $1.97.”

The third-quarter 2026 projected adjusted diluted EPS excludes any non-core, unusual, or nonrecurring items. Our financial results forecasts do not include non-core items (such as mark-to-market pension and other post-retirement benefit gain or loss, and asset impairments and restructuring charges) or any unusual or non-recurring items because we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the financial impact of such items. These items are uncertain and depend on various factors, and we are unable to reconcile projected adjusted diluted EPS excluding non-core and any unusual or non-recurring items to reported GAAP diluted EPS without unreasonable efforts.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Eastman Chemical (EMN) click here.

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