At a glance
CF Industries Holdings Inc is worth $18.21B, about 13 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 19.3% to $7.08B in fiscal 2025, with 20.5% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 11.4% a year. It pays a 1.75% dividend yield, and returned $6.91B to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +47.4% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +18.8% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 46.5% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 26.5% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 8 months and 2 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
CF Industries makes nitrogen products, mostly for fertilizer. Its core product is ammonia, made by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas. It sells ammonia as is or turns it into urea (a granular fertilizer), UAN (a liquid fertilizer) and ammonium nitrate, which also goes into commercial explosives. It also makes diesel exhaust fluid, which cuts diesel engine emissions, and other industrial chemicals. Customers include cooperatives, retailers, distributors, traders, wholesalers and industrial users.
In 2025 it sold 19.1 million tons for net sales of $7.08 billion. Ammonia brought in 30.7% of revenue, UAN 30.5%, urea 25.1%, ammonium nitrate 5.9% and other products 7.7%. US sales made up 75.4%, with Canada at 8.4% and the United Kingdom at 5.3%. Because its products are global commodities, results swing with selling prices and the cost of natural gas.
It runs six US plants, including Donaldsonville, the world's largest ammonia complex, plus two in Canada and one in the UK. CHS Inc. owns about 11% of the subsidiary that holds five of the US plants. CF is also investing in low-carbon ammonia, which involves capturing and storing carbon dioxide. It owns 40% of Blue Point, a planned Louisiana plant with JERA, Japan's largest energy company, and Mitsui, estimated to cost $3.7 billion and expected to start production in 2029.
Price history
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CF +47.4% over the year to Nov 2, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By business segment
| Ammonia | $2.18B | 30.7% |
| UAN | $2.16B | 30.5% |
| Urea | $1.78B | 25.1% |
| Other | $545.0M | 7.7% |
| AN | $421.0M | 5.9% |
By geography
| United States | $5.34B | 75.4% |
| Other foreign | $712.0M | 10.1% |
| Canada | $598.0M | 8.4% |
| United Kingdom | $378.0M | 5.3% |
| North America excluding United States and Canada | $58.0M | 0.8% |
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $2.22B, up 17.6% from a year earlier, and net income was $727.0M (+88.3%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $7.08B (+19.3% year over year; +11.4% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 20.5% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +11.4% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 32.5% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 25.4% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 30.1% good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 10.3% good |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-736.0M watch |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $4.12B | $317.0M | $922.0M |
| FY2021 | $6.54B | $917.0M | $2.36B |
| FY2022 | $11.19B | $3.35B | $3.40B |
| FY2023 | $6.63B | $1.52B | $2.26B |
| FY2024 | $5.94B | $1.22B | $1.75B |
| FY2025 | $7.08B | $1.46B | $1.80B |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $18.21B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 13.4 |
| Dividend yield | 1.75% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
CF Industries Holdings’s market value went from $7.34B at the end of 2016 to $18.21B on Nov 2, 2026, about 2.5 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 51%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2026 | $18.21B | +51.0% |
| 2025 | $12.06B | -18.8% |
| 2024 | $14.85B | -2.2% |
| 2023 | $15.19B | -9.1% |
| 2022 | $16.72B | +10.1% |
| 2021 | $15.18B | +83.3% |
| 2020 | $8.28B | -20.2% |
| 2019 | $10.38B | +3.4% |
| 2018 | $10.04B | +1.2% |
| 2017 | $9.92B | +35.2% |
| 2016 | $7.34B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CF price data to Nov 2, 2026 | +57.8% | +47.4% | +17.0% | +18.8% | +20.3% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +57.8% |
| 2025 | -7.2% |
| 2024 | +10.1% |
| 2023 | -4.7% |
| 2022 | +22.3% |
| 2021 | +87.1% |
| 2020 | -15.8% |
| 2019 | +12.7% |
| 2018 | +5.1% |
| 2017 | +40.3% |
| 2016 | -19.3% |
| 2015 | -23.5% |
| 2014 | +19.3% |
| 2013 | +15.9% |
| 2012 | +41.3% |
| 2011 | +8.0% |
| 2010 | +49.5% |
| 2009 | +85.7% |
| 2008 | -55.1% |
| 2007 | +330.0% |
| 2006 | +68.4% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 15.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 76.7%, back to its old high 32.7 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 44% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 46.5%, back to its old high 8.2 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Gained 47% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 26.5%, back to its old high 2 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 14 sales ($23.7M).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 5, 2026 | W Anthony Will Director | sell | $6.3M |
| Mar 13, 2026 | W Anthony Will Director | sell | $4.3M |
| Mar 11, 2026 | W Anthony Will Director | sell | $3.4M |
| Mar 13, 2026 | W Anthony Will Director | sell | $2.7M |
| Mar 12, 2026 | Susan L Menzel EVP and Chief Admin. Officer | sell | $2.5M |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 7.7% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 7.41% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. | 5.5% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 5.05% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| STATE STREET CORPORATION | 5% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| FMR LLC | 3.3% | Jun 30, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in CF
| PWER Macquarie Energy Transition ETF | 5.05% |
| FXZ First Trust Materials AlphaDEX Fund | 4.51% |
| SHRY First Trust Bloomberg Shareholder Yield ETF | 4.25% |
| RSPM Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Materials ETF | 3.94% |
| MOO VanEck Agribusiness ETF | 3.82% |
| ZIG Acquirers Fund | 3.48% |
| PYZ Invesco Dorsey Wright Basic Materials Momentum ETF | 3.42% |
| IVEG iShares Emergent Food and AgTech Multisector ETF | 3.19% |
What could go wrong
- A costly bet on low-carbon ammonia. Demand for low-carbon ammonia may develop slowly or not at all, and projects like the roughly $3.7 billion Blue Point plant could run late, over budget or underperform if technology falls short.
- Heavy reliance on a few plants. Output is concentrated in a few key facilities, including Donaldsonville, the world's largest ammonia complex. An accident or outage at one site could hurt results, and insurance does not cover every hazard.
- Natural gas drives costs. Natural gas supplies the hydrogen in CF's ammonia, and its price is volatile. A spike raises production costs, while rivals with cheaper or subsidized gas can undercut CF on price.
- Boom-and-bust nitrogen prices. Fertilizer prices rise and fall with global supply. New plants worldwide can flood the market; when capacity grew from 2015 to 2017, CF's average selling price fell 34%, from $314 to $207 per ton.
- Competition from state-backed producers. Nitrogen products are interchangeable commodities sold mainly on price. Some rivals are state-owned or subsidized, with cheaper gas or financing, and may accept lower profits to support jobs at home.
- Weather and seasonal demand. Fertilizer demand depends on planted acres, crop choices and weather. Bad weather can cut sales or raise gas costs, and misjudging seasonal demand can leave excess inventory worth less than it cost.
Recent events
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change; Investor presentation or announcement
- Shareholder vote results
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Other company announcement
- Executive or board change
- Other company announcement
For income and retirement investors
CF Industries pays a modest dividend: $2.00 per share in both 2024 and 2025, up from $1.20 in 2020, an average gain of about 10.8% a year. It did not rise in 2025, so there is no active streak of yearly increases. The yield was 1.75% as of October 28, 2026. In 2025, dividends used 22.4% of earnings and 18.1% of free cash flow (cash left after running and investing in the business). Buybacks, where the company repurchases its own shares, have mattered more: $5.34 billion from 2021 through 2025, versus $1.57 billion in dividends, cutting the share count 29.4% since November 2021.
The shares swing hard in downturns. They fell 76.7% in 2008 and took about 33 months to recover, and dropped 46.5% in the 2020 COVID crash before recovering in about eight months. During the 2022 stock market slide, the shares rose 47% while the broad market fell. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
How does CF Industries make money?
CF Industries makes money by producing and selling nitrogen products, mostly fertilizer. It uses natural gas and nitrogen from the air to make ammonia, then sells the ammonia or upgrades it into UAN, urea and ammonium nitrate. In 2025, net sales were $7.08 billion, with ammonia at 30.7%, UAN at 30.5% and urea at 25.1%. US sales made up 75.4%. Customers include cooperatives, retailers, distributors, traders, wholesalers and industrial users.
Does CF Industries raise its dividend every year?
No. The dividend was $1.20 per share in 2020 and 2021, then rose to $1.50 in 2022, $1.60 in 2023 and $2.00 in 2024. It stayed at $2.00 in 2025, so there is no active streak of yearly increases. Even so, it grew about 10.8% a year on average from 2020 to 2025, and it used only 22.4% of 2025 earnings. The yield was 1.75% as of October 28, 2026.
Does CF Industries do stock buybacks?
Yes, on a large scale. CF spent $5.34 billion repurchasing its own shares from 2021 through 2025, more than three times the $1.57 billion it paid in dividends. Shares outstanding fell 29.4%, from about 214.5 million on November 1, 2021 to about 151.3 million on August 3, 2026. With fewer shares, each remaining share has a claim on a larger slice of the company's profits.
What is CF Industries' Blue Point project?
Blue Point is a planned low-carbon ammonia plant at CF's complex in Modeste, Louisiana. CF owns 40% of the joint venture, JERA, Japan's largest energy company, owns 35% and Mitsui owns 25%. The partners fund the estimated $3.7 billion cost in line with their stakes, and production is expected to begin in 2029. Each partner must take its share of the output. The main risk is that demand for low-carbon ammonia grows slowly or not at all.
How did CF Industries stock do in past market crashes?
It has swung sharply. The shares fell 76.7% between June and November 2008 and took about 33 months to recover. In the 2020 COVID crash they dropped 46.5%, then recovered in about eight months. The 2022 market slide was different: the stock rose 47% while the broad market fell, in a year when revenue jumped to $11.19 billion. Over the year to October 28, 2026, its worst drop from a high was 25.4%.