United Sts Lime & Minerals Stock Price, News & Analysis
Company Description
United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. (NASDAQ: USLM) is a public company headquartered in Dallas, Texas that manufactures lime and limestone products and participates in mineral interests. The company is classified in the crushed and broken limestone mining and quarrying industry within the broader mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector. Its operations focus on producing lime and limestone products that are supplied to a range of end markets across construction, industrial, environmental, metals, roofing, agriculture, and oil and gas services.
Core business and products
United States Lime & Minerals is engaged in the business of manufacturing lime and limestone products, including PLS, quicklime, hydrated lime and lime slurry, as described in available industry data. Company news releases consistently describe it as a manufacturer of lime and limestone products. These products are sold primarily to:
- Construction customers, including highway, road, and building contractors.
- Industrial customers, including paper and glass manufacturers.
- Environmental customers, including municipal sanitation and water treatment facilities and flue gas treatment processes.
- Metals customers, including steel producers.
- Roof shingle manufacturers.
- Agriculture customers, including poultry producers.
- Oil and gas services customers.
The company reports that changes in demand from these customer groups, as well as changes in average selling prices for its lime and limestone products, are key drivers of its revenues and gross profit, as reflected in multiple quarterly and annual results news releases.
Operating footprint and structure
United States Lime & Minerals operates lime and limestone plants and distribution facilities in several U.S. states. According to repeated company disclosures, these facilities are located in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Operations are conducted through wholly owned subsidiaries, including:
- Arkansas Lime Company
- ART Quarry TRS LLC (doing business as Carthage Crushed Limestone)
- Colorado Lime Company
- Mill Creek Dolomite, LLC
- Texas Lime Company
- U.S. Lime Company
- U.S. Lime Company-Shreveport
- U.S. Lime Company-St. Clair
- U.S. Lime Company-Transportation
The company states that it operates through its Lime and Limestone Operations segment, reflecting a focus on lime and limestone manufacturing and related activities.
Mineral interests and oil and gas exposure
In addition to manufacturing, United States Lime & Minerals has exposure to oil and gas activity through mineral interests. Company news releases explain that, through its wholly owned subsidiary U.S. Lime Company-O & G, LLC, it holds royalty and non-operated working interests in natural gas wells located in Johnson County, Texas, in the Barnett Shale Formation. These interests provide participation in natural gas production without the company operating the wells itself.
Customer industries and demand drivers
Across multiple earnings announcements, United States Lime & Minerals highlights how demand from specific customer industries affects its sales volumes and financial results. For example, it has reported:
- Increases in sales volumes and revenues driven principally by its construction, environmental, and steel customers in certain periods.
- Periods of decreased demand from construction, industrial, and steel customers, partially offset by increased demand from roof shingle, environmental, and oil and gas services customers.
- Impacts from weather patterns in the South-Central United States on construction demand.
These disclosures indicate that the company’s performance is closely tied to activity levels in construction (including large projects such as data centers in regions it serves), industrial production, environmental infrastructure, metals production, roofing, agriculture, and oil and gas services.
Stock listing, corporate actions, and dividends
United States Lime & Minerals is described in its news releases as a NASDAQ-listed public company trading under the symbol USLM. The company has announced regular quarterly cash dividends on its common stock in multiple periods. It has also disclosed that on July 12, 2024, it effected a 5-for-1 stock split of its common stock in the form of a stock dividend of four additional shares for each share outstanding, with shares beginning to trade on a post-split basis under the existing USLM symbol.
Dividend declarations, including increases to the regular quarterly cash dividend, are recurring topics in the company’s public communications. These actions are approved by the company’s Board of Directors and are described in connection with quarterly and annual financial results.
Financial reporting and segment focus
The company regularly reports its financial results through quarterly and annual news releases and related filings, such as Form 8-K reports that reference these releases. These disclosures provide information on revenues, cost of revenues, gross profit, selling, general and administrative expenses, other income, income tax expense, and net income. They also distinguish between total revenues and lime and limestone revenues, and between total gross profit and lime and limestone gross profit, reinforcing the central role of lime and limestone products in the business.
United States Lime & Minerals attributes changes in gross profit primarily to changes in revenues, which in turn are driven by sales volumes and average selling prices. It also notes the impact of production costs, including energy, labor, parts and supplies, and the effect of optimizing fuel blends on kilns and changes in natural gas prices on operating expenses.
Headquarters and regulatory profile
Company news releases identify United States Lime & Minerals as having its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. SEC Form 8-K filings confirm that the company is incorporated in Texas and provide its Commission File Number and other regulatory details. As a public company, it files periodic and current reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K, and it references these filings as sources of risk factor and other information.
Business context within the mining and quarrying sector
Within the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, United States Lime & Minerals is focused on crushed and broken limestone mining and quarrying and the manufacture of lime and limestone products. Its operations involve quarrying limestone and processing it into lime and related products that serve downstream industries. The company’s disclosures emphasize the importance of construction, industrial, environmental, metals, roofing, agriculture, and oil and gas services markets to its operations, rather than a diversified set of unrelated businesses.
Risk and forward-looking information
In its news releases, United States Lime & Minerals includes cautionary statements that identify certain non-historical statements as forward-looking, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. It notes that such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and refers investors to its SEC filings for a discussion of these risks. The company also states that it undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements.
Summary
Overall, United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. is a Dallas, Texas-based, NASDAQ-listed company centered on the manufacture of lime and limestone products and related limestone mining and quarrying activities. It serves a defined set of customer industries—construction, industrial, environmental, metals, roof shingle manufacturing, agriculture, and oil and gas services—and operates plants and distribution facilities in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas through a group of wholly owned subsidiaries. Its financial performance is closely linked to demand trends and pricing in these end markets, as well as to production costs and energy prices, as described in its recurring financial disclosures.