LyondellBasell Industries
LYB on NYSE. Industrial organic chemicals. Market value $19.1bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Recent profit includes a big one-time charge, so we price the company excluding that charge.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See Materials stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $8.29 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 12.9 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 10 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 68 of 100. Price score: 85 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$58.93 a share, 42% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $41.58 to $83.94.
Dividend: 7.0% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $1.6 billion in the past 12 months, $384 million in the year to December 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $46.2bn | $50.5bn | $33.3bn | $33.4bn | $30.2bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 14.7% | 10.1% | 8.2% | 5.7% | -1.4% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.98 | 0.90 | 0.87 | 0.89 | 1.28 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.33bn | 0.32bn | 0.32bn | 0.32bn | 0.32bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)3 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt1.28× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 1.7% a year
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $9.2 billion last quarter, up 20% on a year ago.
- Profit: $559 million, up 386% on a year ago.
- It keeps 3 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 2 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $1.6 billion, up from $463 million.
- Debt is $10.3 billion more than cash, up from $10.1 billion a year ago.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $8.6bn |
| December 2024 | Not reported |
| March 2025 | $7.7bn |
| June 2025 | $7.7bn |
| September 2025 | $7.7bn |
| December 2025 | $7.1bn |
| March 2026 | $7.2bn |
| June 2026 | $9.2bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $573m |
| December 2024 | -$603m |
| March 2025 | $177m |
| June 2025 | $115m |
| September 2025 | -$890m |
| December 2025 | -$140m |
| March 2026 | $125m |
| June 2026 | $559m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 30 October 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 20 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 30 October 2026
Who owns it
9 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 11 last quarter. 878 funds in all.
- Muhlenkamp & Co.Jeff Muhlenkamp
- Value
- $10m
- Share of fund
- 2.9%
- Bruce & Co.R. Jeffrey Bruce
- Value
- $3m
- Share of fund
- 0.9%
- Miller Value PartnersBill Miller IV
- Value
- $2m
- Share of fund
- 0.5%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davis Selected AdvisersChris Davis | $458m | 2.0% | Added |
| Hosking PartnersJeremy Hosking | $43m | 1.4% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $37m | <0.1% | Added |
| Muhlenkamp & Co.Jeff Muhlenkamp | $10m | 2.9% | |
| Kiltearn PartnersKiltearn team | $10m | 2.4% | Cut |
| GMOJeremy Grantham | $9m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Bruce & Co.R. Jeffrey Bruce | $3m | 0.9% | |
| Auxier Asset ManagementJeff Auxier | $2m | 0.3% | Cut |
| Miller Value PartnersBill Miller IV | $2m | 0.5% |
Sold out this quarter
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$1.5bnAdded
- Vanguard Capital Management$889m
- State Street$776mAdded
- Capital World Investors$725mAdded
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$631m
- AQR Capital Management$486mAdded
- Davis Selected Advisers$458mAdded
- Morgan Stanley$455mAdded
- FMR$436mCut
- Geode Capital Management$388mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
2 investors own more than 5%.
- LYB Holdco LLCPassive investorat least 20.3%0.0 pts(filed with 5 related holders)Since 13 June 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor6.0%Since 31 March 2026
- Dodge & CoxPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 June 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
LYB Holdco LLC Passive investor | at least 20.3%0.0 pts (filed with 5 related holders) | 13 June 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 6.0% | 31 March 2026 | |
Dodge & Cox Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 June 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 1 insider bought $246,593 of shares on the open market. 1 sold $741,600.
- Kaplan Jeffrey AEVP, Chief PC, Leg & Corp OfcSold
- Date
- 13 May 2026
- Shares
- 10,000
- Price
- $74.16
- Value
- $741,600
- Foley Kimberly AEVP, Global O&P and RefiningBought
- Date
- 12 November 2025
- Shares
- 5,661
- Price
- $43.56
- Value
- $246,593
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 May 2026 | Kaplan Jeffrey A EVP, Chief PC, Leg & Corp Ofc | Sold | 10,000 | $74.16 | $741,600 |
| 12 November 2025 | Foley Kimberly A EVP, Global O&P and Refining | Bought | 5,661 | $43.56 | $246,593 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 20 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 31 Jul 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- Sales have barely grown: 1.7% a year.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.