Full year: American Vanguard's sales down 2%, net income up 12%

American Vanguard Corporation recently announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020.   

Fiscal 2020 Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights – versus Fiscal 2019 Fourth Quarter:
• Net sales were $141 million in 2020, compared to $131 million in 2019
• Net income was $7.9 million in 2020, compared to $3.4 million in 2019
• Earnings per diluted share of $0.26 in 2020, compared to $0.12 in 2019
• EBITDA  of $17.1 million in 2020, compared to $12.0 million in 2019

Fiscal 2020 Full Year Financial Highlights – versus Fiscal 2019 Full Year:
• Net sales were $459 million in 2020, compared to $468 million in 2019
• Net income was $15.2 million in 2020, compared to $13.6 million in 2019
• Earnings per diluted share of $0.51 in 2020, compared to $0.46 in 2019
• EBITDA1 of $47.6 million in 2020, compared to $48.9 million in 2019

Eric Wintemute, Chairman and CEO of American Vanguard, stated: “2020 proved to be a very challenging year as the world coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Global implementation of restrictive public health protocols resulted in conservative distribution channel procurement behavior, significant sales and marketing customer access limitations, and dramatic adaptation to remote work processes in many operational and administrative functions. Throughout the year, we maintained very strict health and safety regimens and thankfully have been able to keep AMVAC manufacturing facilities fully functioning and our workforce largely free of serious illness.”
 
Mr. Wintemute continued: “Despite a difficult and somewhat depressed revenue global environment, our 2020 year-over-year bottom-line performance has increased significantly. This resulted from pandemic restrictions affecting travel activities, lower interest expenses primarily due to reduced federal base lending rate, the benefit of securing a biological technology acquisition at a favorable purchase price, and other non-operating income. Recent product acquisitions continue to broaden our traditional portfolio and company acquisitions have expanded the footprint of our international business. This diversification along with our financial discipline allowed us to achieve reasonable revenue, strong profitability and a de-levered balance sheet despite the difficult business circumstances of this past year.”

Mr. Wintemute concluded: “Looking forward, we believe that our Company is situated well in both domestic and international markets and are consequently optimistic about the prospects for low double-digit revenue growth in 2021. This optimism is driven by the belief that global economies are poised to start re-opening, higher commodity prices will encourage crop protection procurement, the expectation of larger corn acreage in the U.S., continued steady supply availability of key raw and intermediate materials, greater AMVAC product participation in the soybean segment, and the continued expansion of our international business. Looking forward, we expect gross profit margins to remain strong and operating expenses will be tightly managed as we return to more normal operations during the middle to later part of 2021. Further, we will continue to develop our innovative Envance, biological and SIMPAS technologies which collectively represent an integrated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) platform. ” 

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