Zacks Equity Research named Radnor-based Airgas as its Bear of the Day on May 19.

Zacks said Airgas, a provider of industrial, medical and specialty gases, blamed the weather for its recent earnings miss, as the company was projected to put up$1.20/share in earnings, but only delivered $1.15/share instead, largely thanks to the negative impact of the cold on its refrigerant business.

Zacks says the shortfall for Airgas and other chemical companies could be more than just the weather and that sluggish business conditions and some economic uncertainty could spell trouble for chemical stocks in the near term. Zacks noted not a single estimate has moved higher in the past 30 days for any of the time periods they studied.

The trend is especially apparent when investors zero in on the current year, as 12 estimates have gone lower in just the past 30 days. The consensus has also moved sharply lower as a result of these estimate revisions, as the current year has gone from $5.45/share 30 days ago to just $5.11/share on May 19.

Each day, Zacks selects two stocks that its analysts feel are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

Airgas, however, says they are 30 years strong and getting stronger. Airgas said the company has acquired 11 businesses with aggregate annual sales of approximately $82 million, including The Encompass Gas Group, Inc., one of the largest privately-owned suppliers of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and related hard goods in the U.S.

“We delivered record free cash flow of $441 million and 9 percent growth in adjusted EPS for fiscal 2014 in a sluggish economic environment,” said Michael Molinini, Airgas president and chief executive officer. “We remained focused on outstanding customer service, expense management, and execution of strategic initiatives, which included the achievement of our long-standing target of reaching a run-rate of more than $75 million in SAP-enabled operating income benefits by the end of calendar year 2013.”

The full fiscal report is at www.airgas.com

Links: www.zacks.com