Orica (ORI) Stock Price, Fundamentals & Analysis

Orica (ORI) is an Australian company headquartered in East Melbourne, Australia, listed on the ASX. It operates in the Basic Materials sector, specifically in Specialty Chemicals, and employs around 14,000 people.

What ORI does

Orica manufactures, distributes, and sells commercial blasting systems, explosives, mining and tunnelling support systems, and a range of chemical products and services in Australia, Canada, the United States, and internationally. Its portfolio includes 4D bulk explosives systems, packaged explosives, initiating systems, boosters, and seismic explosive ranges, alongside technical and supplementary services.

The company also provides automation solutions such as Avatel, a machine equipped with an underground development charging system, and secondary breakage and hang up blasting, a tele-remote blasting solution. On the chemicals side, it supplies specialty mining chemicals including cyanide, emulsifiers, and sodium cyanide, as well as nitrogen fertilizers such as urea ammonium nitrate and ammonia. Rounding out its offering are blasting benchmarks and insights, training courses, and geotechnical deformation and convergence monitoring solutions. Because of this profile, it is often read alongside mining-sector names like South32 (S32) and Nickel Industries (NIC), whose fortunes are tied to similar industrial demand.

Key numbers explained

• The share price is 22.85 AUD, down -1.42% today, within a 52-week range of 18.58 – 26.47 and up 7.1% over the past year.
• The market capitalisation — the total value of all shares — is 10.59B AUD.
• The trailing P/E ratio of 44.8 compares the share price to the last twelve months of earnings per share (0.51 AUD); the forward P/E of 16.6 is based on expected earnings, and the gap between the two reflects that difference.
• The dividend yield is 2.65%, meaning dividends paid over the past year equal that percentage of the share price; the ex-dividend date is May 21, 2026.
• The payout ratio is 111%, meaning dividends paid exceeded earnings over the period — a figure investors typically scrutinise for sustainability.
• Margins are modest: a 3.1% profit margin, 4.9% operating margin, and 6.6% return on equity, on trailing revenue of 8.12B AUD (down -1.7% year over year).
• The debt-to-equity ratio of 84.8% and a beta of 0.66 — which measures sensitivity to market swings — round out the risk picture; the price-to-book ratio is 2.84.

What to watch

As a supplier to the mining industry, Orica's results tend to follow mining activity levels and commodity exploration spending, themes shared with peers such as Perenti (PRN) and IGO (IGO). Revenue direction matters: the most recent trailing figure declined -1.7% year over year, so future reports may show whether that trend changes. The next earnings date is Nov 12, 2026. The wide gap between trailing and forward P/E means expectations of earnings recovery are embedded in the valuation, so actual reported earnings versus those expectations is a key item to follow. Dividend sustainability is another recurring theme given the 111% payout ratio. As an ASX-listed industrial, it also moves with broader Australian market conditions, which can be tracked via the ASX 200.