New York, Feb 3, 2026, 15:20 EST — Regular session
- LyondellBasell shares jumped sharply on Tuesday after analysts updated their price targets.
- Investors are weighing near-term margin pressure against cost cuts and cash flow plans.
- Plastics prices are still swung by energy costs and supply hiccups tied to the weather.
LyondellBasell Industries N.V. shares jumped 6.4% to $53.46 in afternoon trade on Tuesday, after hitting a session peak of $54.72. RBC Capital nudged up its price target to $51 from $49 and left a “Sector Perform” rating in place, cautioning that the next quarter could remain tight. (TipRanks)
What makes the shift significant is that plastics and chemicals names are behaving like a macro barometer once more: tiny tweaks to earnings forecasts flip sentiment. For LyondellBasell, that arithmetic is all about spreads — the gap between what it pays for oil- and gas-based feedstocks and what it earns selling resins and fuels.
It arrives as analysts pore over last week’s results and recalibrate 2026 models — the usual moment when target tweaks pile up. A “price target” is an analyst’s fair-value estimate; tags such as “Sector Perform” or “Equal Weight” generally indicate expected returns roughly on par with peers.
At Wells Fargo, analyst Michael Sison raised his target to $48 from $45 and maintained an “Equal Weight” rating. He noted the stock has bounced since December but warned “trough-like earnings will linger well into 2026,” and the firm trimmed estimates once more. (TipRanks)
Citigroup analyst Patrick Cunningham also bumped his target to $49 from $46 and kept a neutral rating. (TipRanks)
The bid hasn’t been limited to one ticker. On Monday a broad rally lifted the Dow and S&P 500, and chemical peers including Dow Inc. and Westlake Corporation posted outsized gains that session. (MarketWatch)
In its Jan. 30 earnings release, the company said it beat its 2025 “Cash Improvement Plan” goal and raised the cumulative target to $1.3 billion by the end of 2026, with an additional $500 million of cash expected versus 2025 actuals. Chief executive Peter Vanacker said the company was “increasing” that cumulative target, while management flagged ongoing volatility in feedstock and energy prices and pointed to winter storm-related supply reductions as supportive for polyethylene price increase efforts in North America. (LyondellBasell Investors)
But the downside case is still easy to write. On Tuesday, generation outages on PJM Interconnection surged as a cold snap disrupted fuel supplies, and spot natural gas in Pennsylvania swung sharply — the kind of move that can bleed into petrochemical input costs and hit margins fast. (mmBtu is a standard gas pricing unit: million British thermal units.) (Reuters)
Next, investors will be watching for any updated read-through on plastics demand and pricing when the company shows up at industry events — notably AMI Polyethylene Films on Feb. 17 in Tampa and the Plastics Recycling Conference on Feb. 23 in San Diego. (LyondellBasell)
