Calumet Reported a $95.9 Million Loss. The Loss Was Actually Half What It Was a Year Ago

Calumet's headline number for the second quarter of 2026 was a net loss of $95.9 million, or $(1.09) per share — a result that missed the $(0.34) per-share estimate by a wide margin. Read as a bare number against the estimate, it looks like a clean miss.

The year-over-year comparison tells a different story. That $95.9 million loss is well below the $147.9 million net loss Calumet posted in the same quarter a year earlier — the company lost roughly a third less money than it did twelve months ago, even though the per-share figure still missed what analysts had modeled. Part of the headline loss came from $163.6 million of non-cash items: RINs (Renewable Identification Numbers, a regulatory credit tied to biofuel blending requirements) expense and derivative mark-to-market effects, neither of which reflects cash actually leaving the business this quarter.

Underneath the net loss line, the operating results were strong. Revenue rose 40.8% year over year to $1.45 billion, beating the $1.08 billion estimate. Adjusted EBITDA reached $159.3 million, up from $55.1 million a year earlier, and Adjusted EBITDA with Tax Attributes climbed to $175.2 million from $76.5 million. The Specialty Products and Solutions segment did the heavy lifting, more than doubling its Adjusted EBITDA to $161.7 million, while Montana/Renewables added $26.6 million and Performance Brands contributed $6.3 million.

Calumet also used the release to disclose a debt move: its subsidiaries will redeem all outstanding $100 million of 9.75% senior notes due July 15, 2026, at 102.438% of principal — a step that reduces future interest expense and gives the company more financial flexibility going forward. Despite the improved loss, the revenue beat, and the EBITDA growth, shares fell 2.68% in the 15 minutes after the release, a reminder that a headline miss on EPS can outweigh stronger underlying numbers in the initial market reaction.