Goldman Sachs raises Croda stock price target to GBP24 but keeps Sell rating

Published 21/10/2025, 09:26
Goldman Sachs raises Croda stock price target to GBP24 but keeps Sell rating

Investing.com - Goldman Sachs has raised its price target on Croda International (LON:CRDA) to GBP24.00 from GBP23.00 while maintaining a Sell rating on the specialty chemicals company. According to InvestingPro data, the company currently trades at a P/E ratio of 28.29x and has demonstrated strong momentum with a 9.19% return over the past week.

The price target adjustment follows Croda’s shares rising 10% versus the SX4P index in the past month and the company beating organic sales growth expectations in its third-quarter 2025 results.

Despite the modest price target increase, Goldman Sachs remains cautious on Croda , citing three underappreciated aspects of the company’s operating model and highlighting mid-term challenges including ethylene oxide overcapacity from Asia and competitive pressures from chemical distributors.

Goldman Sachs has made small upgrades to its forecasts for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 following Croda’s better-than-expected sales update, but continues to forecast 2%, 11%, and 15% below consensus on adjusted EBIT for fiscal years 2025, 2026, and 2027.

The investment bank notes that consensus estimates for fiscal year 2026 organic sales growth of 4.5% appear challenging compared to Croda’s historical average of 1.8% over 2014-2024, which was entirely driven by price/mix rather than volume growth.

In other recent news, Croda International has been the focus of multiple analyst upgrades. Barclays has upgraded the company’s stock rating from Equalweight to Overweight, although it has lowered the price target from GBP36.00 to GBP31.00. Despite a significant share price decline over the past four years, Barclays sees potential in Croda’s future performance. Similarly, JPMorgan has upgraded Croda International from Neutral to Overweight, maintaining a price target of GBP36.00. This upgrade followed a 10% stock decline despite Croda’s earnings meeting expectations for the first half of 2025. JPMorgan notes the market’s concerns over competitive pressures and regulatory uncertainty affecting Croda’s pharmaceutical business. These recent developments highlight increased analyst confidence in Croda International’s valuation and potential recovery.

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