Margin Expansion and EPS Growth
Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 80 basis points in Q4 and 50 basis points for full year 2025 versus 2024, reaching a record 16.7%. Adjusted EBITDA was $545,000,000 for 2025 (up 3.5% year‑over‑year as reported). Adjusted EPS grew ~14% in Q4 and ~6% for the full year.
Strong Free Cash Flow and Deleveraging
Generated $195,000,000 of free cash flow in 2025, used $150,000,000 to reduce outstanding debt and finished the year with net leverage of 2.6x (down from 3.1x in 2023). 2026 free cash flow is guided to $200,000,000–$220,000,000 with a goal to reduce leverage below ~2.5x.
Specialty Engineered Materials (SEM) Strength
SEM organic sales grew ~3% in Q4 and ~2% for full year 2025. Q4 SEM benefited from double‑digit/strong growth in defense, healthcare and telecommunications, delivering ~80 basis points of margin expansion and ~10% EBITDA growth in Q4.
Innovation and New Product Development
Accelerated R&D: ~50+ patent filings over the last two years (up materially from ~20 historically). Launched innovations including GlideTech non‑PFAS lubricious materials, non‑PFAS polymer processing aids for polyolefin film, and a Dyneema process improvement that unlocks incremental fiber capacity.
Positive 2026 Guidance
Full‑year 2026 guidance: adjusted EBITDA $555M–$585M (up ~2%–7% YoY) and adjusted EPS $2.93–$3.17 (up ~4%–12% YoY). Q1 adjusted EPS outlook of $0.81. Guidance contemplates productivity carryover, continued margin expansion, and improved demand in key markets.
Regional & End‑market Signs of Improvement
Q4 improvements include U.S./Canada sales decline narrowing to 1% (from -5% prior quarter), packaging flipping to low single‑digit growth in Q4, and Asia organic growth of ~3% driven by packaging, telecom and high‑performance computing materials.