CVR Partners Continues to Thump S&P 500
When it comes to performance, not even the artificial intelligence (AI) fueled enthusiasm can help the technology sector overcome the performance of the basic materials sector. The so-called boring sector is crushing the S&P 500, and it’s the top performing sector both year over year (+44%) and year to date (10.5%). And one of the top-performing companies in the sector is CVR Partners LP (NYSE:UAN).
Thanks to strong financial results and investor optimism, UAN units are up:
- 21% over the last month
- 33% over the last three months
- 42% over the last six months
- 13% year to date
- 58% year over year
UAN units actually hit a new record intraday high of $119.00 on January 15. The stock continues to trade near that level.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
About CVR Partners LP
America’s only petroleum coke-based nitrogen fertilizer producer, CVR Partners LP, is a limited partnership formed by CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CVI) to own, operate, and grow its nitrogen fertilizer business. (Source: “Who We Are,” CVR Partners LP, last accessed January 16, 2026.)
Its nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing facilities, which are responsible for producing ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizers, are located in Coffeyville, Kansas, and East Dubuque, Illinois.
CVR Partners’ Coffeyville plant is the only such operations in North America that uses the petroleum coke gasification process to make hydrogen, a key ingredient in its manufacturing procedure. Its East Dubuque nitrogen fertilizer plant uses natural gas as its feedstock to produce nitrogen fertilizer.
Fertilizer makers like CVR Partners take nitrogen out of the air and combine it with hydrogen, usually from natural gas, in order to make the nitrogen compound ammonia. Ammonia is either applied directly in/on the soil as a nitrogen fertilizer or used as a building block to make other nitrogen fertilizers.
On the topic of farming, the demand for corn is high in the U.S. because, in addition to corn on the cob, the crop has a large number of uses, including feed grain and fuel (ethanol).
Another Strong Quarter
We know shareholders are liking CVR Partners’ financial results, because they keep lifting UAN units higher. In October, the company continued its year-to-date trend of reporting strong financial results.
This included net income of $43.0 million, or $4.08 per common unit, a big improvement over the $4.0 million, or $0.36 per unit, it recorded in the same prior-year period. (Source: “CVR Partners Reports Third Quarter 2025 Results,” CVR Partners LP, October 29, 2025.)
CVR Partners reported third-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $71.0 million, almost double the $36.0 million it reported in the third quarter of 2024. Net sales, meanwhile, were up 31% at $164.0 million.
Commenting on the results, Mark Pytosh, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO), said, “CVR Partners achieved strong results for the third quarter of 2025 driven by safe, reliable operations and a combined ammonia production rate of 95 percent.”
In early January, CVR Partners provided its 2026 capital spending plan of between $60.0 million and $75.0 million.
“For our growth capital projects, we look forward to progressing or completing certain margin-improvement and debottlenecking projects at both plants that are expected to improve reliability and production rates,” said Pytosh.
The CEO noted that the partnership plans to invest capital in the ammonia expansion and feedstock diversification project at its Coffeyville facility and expand its diesel exhaust fluid production and loadout capacity.
The goal of these projects is to support CVR Partners’ target of operating the plants at utilization rates above 95%.
Quarterly Payout Jumps 237% to $4.02/Unit
CVR Partners’ stated goal is to distribute all of the available cash it generates each quarter. That means its payout will vary due to factors such as operating performance, fluctuations in the prices of finished products, and maintenance capital expenditures.
Right now, things are going well for CVR Partners. After implementing a 105% increase in its second-quarter payout, it announced a 237% year-over-year increase in the third quarter.
Management declared a third-quarter cash distribution of $4.02 per share, up from $1.19 per share in the third quarter of last year. This works out to an annual distribution of $9.09 per UAN unit, for a forward distribution of approximately 10%. (Source: “Dividend History,” CVR Partners LP, last accessed January 16, 2026.)
The Lowdown on CVR Partners LP
I’ve been watching CVR Partners for a while now, and the partnership continues to go from strength to strength. It has a strong balance sheet and continues to report robust financial results.
That momentum is expected to continue. The company’s management has indicated that supply and demand balances for nitrogen fertilizer products remain tight, and prices have remained strong through the end of the planting season.
This positive outlook could help energize CVR Partners’ units and distribution payouts over the longer term.