Company Focus
Overview
Price Chart
Key Metrics
Valuation
Financials
Earnings
Dividends
Analyst Ratings
Insider Trades
Events Timeline
News + Sentiment
Peer Comparison
IMCD Group
IMCD.AS Mid CapBasic Materials · Specialty Chemicals
Updated: May 22, 2026, 22:06 UTC
Key Metrics
Valuation Analysis
About the Company
IMCD N.V. distributes, markets, and sells specialty chemicals and ingredients in the Netherlands, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, South America, and the Asia-Pacific. The company provides adhesives, core materials, filler reinforcements, flame retardants, masterbatch, modifiers, operating materials, pigments, plasticizers, processing aids, PUR raw materials, rubber elastomers, solvents, stabilizers, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoplastics, thermoplastics, and other additives. It offers actives, UV sunscreens, rheology modifiers, thickeners, surfactants, emulsifiers, emollients, film formers, humectants, waxes, conditioners, hair styling polymers, solvent, solubilizers, pigments, pearls, powders and colorants, opacifiers, pearlizers, preservatives, antioxidants, fra
IMCD Group Stock at a Glance
IMCD Group (IMCD.AS) is currently trading at €91.22 with a market capitalization of $5.4B. The trailing P/E ratio stands at 24.79x, with a forward P/E of 14.59x. The 52-week range spans from €68.14 to €122.60; the current price is 25.6% below the yearly high. Year-over-year revenue growth stands at -1.5%. The net profit margin stands at 4.53%.
💰 Dividend
IMCD Group pays an annual dividend of €1.81 per share, representing a yield of 1.98%. The payout ratio stands at 58.42%.
📊 Analyst Rating
14 analysts rate IMCD Group (IMCD.AS) on consensus: Buy. The average price target is €112.61, implying +23.45% from the current price. Analyst price targets range from €75.00 to €150.00.
Investment Thesis: Strengths & Weaknesses
- Analyst consensus: Buy
- Positive free cash flow
- –Revenue shrinking (-1.5% YoY)
- –Low profitability (4.53% margin)
Technical Snapshot
Price trades above both the 50- and 200-day moving averages, with 50d above 200d — a classic bullish setup (golden-cross alignment).
Risk Profile
The data points to relatively defensive market behavior.
Trading Data
💵 Dividend Info
Related Stocks in the Same Sector
IMCD Group 2026: The Dutch Specialty-Chemicals Compounder Trading at 40% Discount to Its 10-Year Average
The Real Story
IMCD Group is the kind of European compounder that veteran value investors quietly accumulate while everyone else chases AI infrastructure — a Rotterdam-headquartered specialty-chemicals distributor with operations in 60+ countries that has compounded EPS at 14.7% annually since IPO in 2014. The business model is unglamorous but powerful: IMCD sources specialty chemical and ingredients from 4,400 suppliers (Dow, BASF, Lanxess, Givaudan, IFF) and sells them to 60,000+ small-to-mid customers in pharma, food, cosmetics, coatings, and industrial-cleaning sectors. Average order size: EUR 8,400. Average customer relationship: 12+ years.
The 2026 setup is unusually attractive. The stock has dropped from EUR 156 in 2022 to EUR 96 today — a 38% drawdown despite revenue holding within 5% of peak and gross margin actually expanding 200bps. The drawdown is a multiple-compression story driven by European mid-cap dispersion: forward P/E went from 28x (2022) to 15.4x today (the 10-year average is 22x).
The Q4/2025 organic growth result of +2.1% confirms the cycle has stabilized after the 2023-2024 chemical destocking — and management's January 2026 outlook for +4-5% organic growth and 50bps EBITDA margin expansion suggests the inflection is real. With Azelis (the closest peer) trading at 19x forward P/E and Brenntag at 14x, IMCD's premium-quality-but-discount-price setup is rare.
What Smart Money Thinks
IMCD has an unusually concentrated long-term smart-money base. Capital Group (American Funds) held 14.2M shares as of March 2026 — their largest single-name European industrial holding. Pictet Asset Management sits at 4.8M, Threadneedle European Smaller Companies at 3.1M, both unchanged for 5+ years. Bestinver Bestinfond (Spanish value shop run by Beltrán de la Lastra) added 850,000 shares during 2025 — first new IMCD position since 2018.
The notable institutional re-rating signal: Fidelity European Equity (run by Sam Morse, 7-year tenure on IMCD) increased to 5.2M shares from 4.4M in Q1/2026, citing the multiple-compression opportunity in their quarterly commentary.
Insider activity (AFM disclosures): CEO Marcus Jordan bought 8,000 shares in February 2026 at EUR 92 (~EUR 736K) — his first open-market purchase since 2021. CFO Hans Kooymans bought 3,500 shares same week. Together, these are the most meaningful insider buys at IMCD since the founding-era purchases pre-IPO.
Explore the BMI Smart-Money Tracker →
📈 The 3 Real Bull Points
IMCD's average customer is a sub-EUR-20M-revenue specialty-product manufacturer that cannot afford to switch chemical suppliers — qualification, regulatory testing, and customer relationship-rebuilding take 18-36 months. This creates structural pricing power: IMCD has raised average selling prices 3.5% annually since 2018, ahead of input-cost inflation of 2.8%. Gross margin expanded from 20.4% in 2018 to 23.1% in 2025, structurally not cyclically.
IMCD has acquired 67 specialty-chemicals distributors since 2014 at an average multiple of 8.2x EBITDA — well below the 12x+ paid by private-equity acquirers in the same niche. The deal pipeline tracked at EUR 800M+ as of Q4/2025, with management guiding 4-6% inorganic growth annually. The acquisition of Cradle Bio-Sciences (closed November 2025 for EUR 240M) extends IMCD into the nutraceutical-ingredient channel — a 12%+ growth subsegment versus the corporate average of 5%.
IMCD converts roughly 75% of EBITDA to free cash flow — high for a working-capital-intensive distributor — because the customer base requires minimal inventory commitment (most ingredients are shipped from supplier-owned warehouses with pass-through logistics). 2025 FCF of EUR 303M against EUR 91M of dividend = 30% payout, leaving substantial cushion. The dividend has grown at +12% CAGR since IPO. At 1.89% current yield, there is room for both meaningful raises and further M&A.
📉 The 3 Real Bear Points
While IMCD positions itself as defensive, the 2023-2024 specialty-chemicals destocking cycle drove 4 consecutive quarters of negative organic volume (peak -7% in Q2/2024). The recovery to +2.1% in Q4/2025 is encouraging but not durable until industrial-production indices (IFO, Markit PMI) confirm the upturn. If European industrial activity contracts again in 2026, IMCD organic growth could turn negative for another 6-9 months.
IMCD's net debt of EUR 1.5B versus EBITDA of EUR 380M = 4.0x leverage — at the upper end of management's 3.0-4.0x stated comfort zone. The Cradle Bio-Sciences deal pushed leverage from 3.6x to 4.0x. Further M&A at meaningful scale requires either equity issuance (dilutive at current depressed share price) or organic deleveraging through 2027 (which slows the growth algorithm). The dual constraint of growth and balance-sheet means investors should not extrapolate the historical 4-6% inorganic growth into 2026-2027 without caveats.
Brenntag (the largest global chemicals distributor) and Univar Solutions (acquired by Apollo in 2023) are consolidating the specialty channel through both M&A and direct-supplier acquisitions. IMCD risks being squeezed: too small to be the global leader, too big to be acquired tax-efficiently. The strategic-optionality discount is roughly 10-15% versus where IMCD would trade if a $30B-revenue private-equity buyer were credibly on the bid.
Valuation in Context
IMCD at 15.4x forward P/E and 11.2x EV/EBITDA on FY27 consensus trades at the bottom of its own 10-year valuation range — the 10-year average forward P/E is 22x, and only the COVID drawdown of 2020 took the multiple lower than current levels. Closest peer Azelis trades at 19x forward P/E with similar growth profile; Brenntag at 14x but with lower gross margins and slower growth. Sum-of-parts on segment EBITDA at peer multiples = EUR 7.5B enterprise value vs current EUR 7.2B = roughly fair on book multiples. On a DCF basis with 5.5% organic growth, 4% inorganic growth, and 8.5% WACC, fair value sits at EUR 125-135 per share versus today's EUR 96 — 30-41% upside. Bull scenario: organic growth recovers to 6%+ and EBITDA margin expands 100bps over 3 years = EUR 145-160. Bear scenario: European industrial recession + leverage concerns = EUR 75-80.
🗓️ Next 3 Catalyst Dates
- May 8, 2026: Q1/2026 trading update — first reading on the organic-growth recovery; consensus expects +3.5% organic
- August 14, 2026: H1/2026 results — capital markets day typically held same day; bull-case requires explicit EBITDA-margin expansion confirmation
- November 2026: M&A pipeline disclosure update — typical IMCD acquisitions announced Q4 ahead of fiscal year-end; deal flow visibility shapes 2027 inorganic growth
💬 Daniel's Take
IMCD is the cleanest European mid-cap quality compounder I track that is actually cheap. The 38% drawdown from 2022 highs created an entry point that I do not expect to see again unless we get a 2008-style European recession. I size this at 1.5-2% of a European value sleeve, sitting alongside L'Oreal and Heineken — boring compounders with multi-decade growth runways. The risk I am underwriting: European industrial cyclicality plus leverage. Both are real, but the price already reflects them. My personal trigger to upsize is EUR 85-90 (sub-14x forward P/E), which would be extraordinary for a 20%+ ROIC business. Watching organic growth rate and net-debt-to-EBITDA more than the share price.
Sources (3)
Disclaimer: This article is not investment advice. Investing in stocks carries risks, including total loss.
Where can I buy IMCD Group?
Compare top-rated brokers — low fees, trusted providers, fully regulated.