BASF SE Stock On 27 November 2025: Share Price Slips As China Expansion, IPO Plans And Analyst Downgrades Collide

BASF SE’s share price was slightly lower on Thursday, 27 November 2025, as traders digested fresh headlines on new plants in China, a landmark “zero‑carbon” certification, the planned IPO of the Agricultural Solutions division and tighter analyst views following a major downgrade.

Below is a full wrap‑up of what moved BASF stock today and what it could mean for investors.

BASF share price today: mild loss after a strong run

On Xetra, BASF SE (ticker: BAS) closed Thursday at €44.52, down about 0.22% from Wednesday’s close of €44.62. The stock traded in a relatively tight range between €44.20 and €44.74, with around 418,000 shares changing hands – well below the 3‑month average volume of roughly 2.2 million. ^[1]

Despite today’s dip, BASF shares are still up about 5.5% over the past 12 months, comfortably above the 52‑week low near €37.40 but well below the recent high around €55.06. ^[2]

Across the Atlantic, the BASF SE ADR (BASFY) last closed at about $12.91 on Wednesday, 26 November, down a fraction on the day. ^[3]

In index terms, BASF slightly underperformed the DAX, which traded modestly higher today – around +0.2% at midday and roughly +0.7% later in the session, reflecting ongoing optimism in German blue chips. ^[4]

Intraday moves: morning strength, softer midday trading

German market wires show that BASF initially gained ground on Thursday morning, with a Finanzen.ch note at 09:29 CET flagging the stock as moving higher in early Xetra trade. ^[5]

By late morning and around lunchtime, the picture had changed:

At 12:28 CET, Finanzen.ch reported “BASF am Mittag leichter”, with the share quoted around €44.44, down roughly 0.4% in Xetra trading. ^[6]
A separate feed from FinanzNachrichten showed BASF at €44.45 at 12:47, down 0.38%. ^[7]
On Tradegate, wallstreet‑online recorded €44.49 at 13:04, a decline of about 0.34%. ^[8]

The day thus evolved from a positive open to a modest pullback, with BASF lagging the broader DAX as investors weighed new strategic news against a still‑challenging chemicals backdrop.

China expansion: new dispersant plant in Nanjing

One of today’s key fundamental talking points around BASF stock is the company’s latest capacity expansion in China.

Trade press reports from Coatings World and related industry outlets confirm that BASF has started up a new production line for high‑performance dispersants at its site in Nanjing’s Jiangbei New Material Technology Park. ^[9]

Dispersants are critical additives used in automotive and industrial coatings, helping pigments distribute evenly and improving performance. The new line:

Strengthens the “local‑for‑local” strategy by supplying Asian customers directly from China rather than relying on imports.
Shortens supply chains for regional coatings producers, potentially improving reliability and reducing logistics costs.
Targets demand growth in higher‑value, water‑borne and low‑VOC coating systems, which are central to tightening environmental regulations in Asia.

German investor commentary from Börse Express and Börse Global explicitly frames this plant as a strategic bet against Europe’s structural headwinds, highlighting BASF’s push to shift more growth and margin potential into Asia as European chemicals margins remain under pressure. ^[10]

For shareholders, the Nanjing news reinforces a long‑term pivot: more capital and capacity are being allocated to markets where demand is still expanding and energy costs are more competitive than in Europe.

ESG focus: Rudong agrochemical site earns “Zero‑Carbon Factory” label

On the sustainability side, BASF released a notably positive ESG headline today.

In a news release dated 27 November 2025, the company announced that its Rudong site in China, which produces agrochemical products, has been certified as a “Zero‑Carbon Factory” by TÜV Rheinland. It is the first BASF Agricultural Solutions production site worldwide to achieve this status. ^[11]

Key points from BASF’s statement:

TÜV Rheinland issued four verification statements supporting the site’s CO₂‑emission‑free status (within defined boundaries).
The certification builds on renewable power sourcing and energy‑efficiency measures implemented at the site.
Management links the move to BASF’s broader ambition to be the “preferred chemical company for the green transformation” and to its ESG frameworks presented to investors this quarter. ^[12]

For investors, this adds to the narrative that BASF’s growth in crop protection and ag‑inputs is increasingly ESG‑aligned – important given that the Agricultural Solutions business is being groomed for an IPO (more on that below).

Analyst picture: Deutsche Bank downgrade cools the mood

While the operational headlines are constructive, sell‑side sentiment turned more cautious in recent days, and today’s German‑language coverage heavily reflects that.

A widely circulated note from Deutsche Bank Research, now prominently listed on FinanzNachrichten, cut BASF from “Buy” to “Hold” and slashed the price target from €51 to €45. ^[13]

Börse Global’s article “BASF Aktie: Warnschuss der Experten!” (“warning shot from the experts”) summarises the downgrade as follows: ^[14]

Deutsche Bank expects difficult conditions in the chemicals sector to persist well into 2026, limiting near‑term catalysts for a re‑rating.
With the stock now trading close to the new €45 target, upside is seen as largely priced in, especially after the recent rebound.
Recent Q3 results showed pressure on earnings, with EPS down year‑on‑year, reinforcing concerns about margin resilience in Europe.

Other investment banks have also trimmed their targets in recent weeks:

Goldman Sachs: Buy, target cut to €46.
Barclays: Equal Weight, target €41.
Jefferies: Hold, target €43.
UBS: Neutral, target €45. ^[15]

According to Investing.com data, BASF currently trades on a headline P/E of around 128x, reflecting depressed trailing earnings rather than tech‑style growth, and offers a dividend yield of roughly 5.0% based on a €2.25 payout. ^[16]

German technical commentators also note that the stock is hovering just above its 200‑day moving average, with Börse Express estimating the price only about half a percent above that key level. ^[17]

In short, analysts acknowledge the strategic progress, but many see the market already discounting much of the near‑term good news.

Valuation debate: DCF upside vs. earnings reality

A fresh piece from Simply Wall St, published today and syndicated to Yahoo Finance, underlines how divided valuation views on BASF remain. ^[18]

Their analysis highlights two contrasting angles:

Discounted cash‑flow (DCF) model
- Using forecasts that see free cash flow rising to more than €3 billion by 2029, the model suggests an intrinsic value around €87 per share.
- Versus today’s €44.5–45 trading range, that implies close to 50% upside. ^[19]
Price‑to‑earnings comparison
- On trailing numbers, BASF trades at a triple‑digit P/E, far above both peers (~31x) and the broader chemicals sector (~21x) according to their data.
- Their “fair P/E” framework would place BASF closer to 34x, which would imply overvaluation on this metric. ^[20]

Simply Wall St’s conclusion is that valuation outcomes depend heavily on the narrative you believe – aggressive recovery in cash flows versus a slower, structurally constrained normalization.

For SEO‑minded readers: taken together, BASF SE stock today sits in an unusual spot – high on earnings multiples, low versus DCF‑implied fair value, and backed by a hefty dividend and buyback story.

IPO plans for Agricultural Solutions: 2027 listing in Frankfurt

A medium‑term driver attracting attention in today’s BASF coverage is the planned IPO of the Agricultural Solutions division.

On 11 November, BASF announced that it is targeting the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as the listing venue for Agricultural Solutions, which will be carved out as a European company (Societas Europaea, SE). A new management board led by Livio Tedeschi has been named to steer the business toward IPO readiness by 2027. ^[21]

Key elements of the IPO story:

BASF intends to float a minority stake while retaining control, unlocking value while keeping strategic exposure. ^[22]
The unit is a global player in seeds and crop protection, competing with Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta, and is seen by many analysts as structurally higher‑growth than some of BASF’s more cyclical commodity businesses. ^[23]
The spin‑out fits into CEO Markus Kamieth’s “Winning Ways” strategy to separate less‑integrated businesses and sharpen BASF’s core chemicals focus. ^[24]

Today’s opinion pieces, especially in German media, point out that the ag‑IPO is one of the few clearly identifiable future catalysts that could change how the market values BASF’s conglomerate structure. ^[25]

Coatings sale and share buyback: cash back to shareholders

The Coatings division sale is another pillar of the BASF SE stock story that features prominently in current coverage.

Reuters reported earlier this month that BASF has agreed to sell a 60% stake in its Coatings business to private equity firm Carlyle and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) for about €5.8 billion in cash, with BASF retaining a significant minority stake. ^[26]

Today, that deal showed up again in the news flow through the lens of regulators:

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published a notification on 27 November 2025 for the proposed acquisition of BASF Coatings by Carlyle.
The filing confirms that Carlyle will take control, BASF will keep around 40%, and QIA will own approximately 16% on a look‑through basis. ^[27]

This divestment is directly tied to a sizable share buyback:

In a news release on 28 October 2025, BASF unveiled a share buyback program of up to €1.5 billion, running from November 2025 to June 2026.
The program is part of a broader €4 billion capital return plan via buybacks through 2028, complementing an annual dividend of at least €2.25 per share, or roughly €2 billion per year.
Management’s goal is to distribute at least €12 billion to shareholders between 2025 and 2028 through dividends and repurchases, while gradually reducing the share count and supporting earnings per share. ^[28]

For BASF SE shareholders, this means today’s modest share price weakness is happening against a powerful capital‑return backdrop – but the scale of the sector headwinds determines how much of that capital actually translates into sustainable total returns.

Hydrogen and decarbonisation: strategic partnerships in the background

Beyond today’s date‑stamped headlines, investors are also weighing BASF’s longer‑term decarbonisation initiatives, which contextualise the Rudong certification.

Two examples frequently cited in recent weeks:

BASF and ExxonMobil have entered a strategic collaboration to advance methane pyrolysis technology aimed at producing low‑emission hydrogen for industrial uses, including a planned demonstration plant on the road to commercial readiness. ^[29]
BASF is a backer of Carbon Measures, a new coalition pushing ledger‑based carbon accounting that could eventually reshape how emissions are measured and priced, potentially benefiting early adopters. ^[30]

These moves support the view – echoed in BASF’s latest ESG investment decks – that the group is trying to turn sustainability from a compliance cost into a competitive advantage in chemicals and agriculture. ^[31]

How to read BASF SE stock after today’s news

Putting the 27 November 2025 news flow together, several themes stand out for BASF SE stock:

Price action
- BASF shares closed slightly lower today after intraday swings, underperforming a firmer DAX. ^[32]
- The stock remains well off its 52‑week highs but modestly positive over one year, reflecting cautious optimism rather than a full‑blown rerating. ^[33]
Fundamental momentum
- China remains the growth engine, with the Nanjing dispersant plant and the “zero‑carbon” Rudong site strengthening both earnings potential and ESG credentials in Asia. ^[34]
- The Agricultural Solutions IPO plan and Coatings sale are reshaping BASF’s portfolio and could unlock hidden value if executed well. ^[35]
Valuation and risk
- The dividend plus buyback story is compelling on paper, but analysts like Deutsche Bank warn that industry headwinds through 2026 may cap upside for now. ^[36]
- Third‑party models disagree sharply on fair value: DCF‑based work suggests large upside, while earnings‑based multiples look stretched due to compressed profits. ^[37]
Key watch‑points after 27 November 2025
- Progress and regulatory approvals on the Coatings sale. ^[38]
- Concrete steps toward the Agricultural Solutions Frankfurt IPO, including governance and capital structure details. ^[39]
- Evidence that European chemicals demand and margins are stabilising, which would help close the gap between DCF optimism and earnings reality. ^[40]
- BASF’s next earnings report, scheduled for late February 2026, which will give investors fresh data on volumes, pricing and cash flow. ^[41]

For now, BASF SE stock on 27 November 2025 sits at the crossroads: operational progress and generous shareholder returns on one side; cyclical headwinds, analyst caution and rich earnings multiples on the other. How investors weigh those forces will determine whether today’s small dip is just a pause in a recovery – or an early signal that the recent rally is running out of steam.

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