LyondellBasell Industries NV Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (LYB)

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B- . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and attractive valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat weak growth in earnings per share.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Compared to its closing price of one year ago, LYB's share price has jumped by 95.22%, exceeding the performance of the broader market during that same time frame. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, LYB should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.38, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.38, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.
• LYB, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 5.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 15.5%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Chemicals industry average. The net income has decreased by 4.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $804.00 million to $770.00 million.

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. manufacturers and sells chemicals and polymers, refines crude oil, produces gasoline blending components, and develops and licenses technologies for the production of polymers. LyondellBasell has a market cap of $32.05 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and chemicals industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 14.7, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 70% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full LyondellBasell Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

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