CF Industries Holdings (CF) Stock Analysis & Winston Score

CF Industries makes fertilizers that farmers use to help crops grow. Its main product is nitrogen fertilizer — especially ammonia and urea — which it sells to farmers, farm cooperatives, and agricultural distributors across North America. It is one of the largest nitrogen fertilizer producers in the world. The company makes money by manufacturing and selling fertilizer products, so its profits rise and fall with fertilizer prices and natural gas costs, since natural gas is the key ingredient used to make nitrogen fertilizer. CF Industries operates large production plants mostly in the United States, with some facilities in the United Kingdom and Canada, generating roughly $6–7 billion in annual revenue. Its low-cost U.S. production network gives it a cost advantage over many foreign competitors, but the biggest risk it faces is a sharp drop in global fertilizer prices or a spike in natural gas prices, either of which can quickly squeeze its margins.