Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc., or RYAM, began reviewing strategic alternatives in April that could include a sale, but the appointment of a new CEO could point to a different direction.
The Jacksonville-based maker of cellulose specialties products announced June 22 that Daniel Krawczyk was appointed president and CEO.
His predecessor, Scott Sutton, left the company in April after fewer than four months on the job as the company announced the strategic review.
RYAM formed an interim office of the chief executive comprising several top executives to run the company after Sutton left, so the appointment of a permanent CEO raises questions about why someone would take the job with the expectations it could soon be sold.
“RYAM’s board emphasizes that no conclusions regarding its strategic review of alternatives have been reached, and that Mr. Krawczyk’s appointment ‘further sharpens the focus on both the business and the strategic review’ and should not be viewed as signaling any particular outcome of the review,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Matthew McKellar said in a research note.
“However, while we continue to expect that the strategic review can create value for shareholders (the company stated that the ‘review process is well underway, and the Board is actively advancing the process with urgency and discipline’), we wonder if some shareholders may view a sale of the company as marginally less probable with the appointment,” he said.
McKellar, who maintains an “outperform” rating on the stock, said he expected a “neutral to moderately negative reaction” on Wall Street after the announcement, which came before the market opened.
RYAM’s stock fell 85 cents to $8.20 June 22.
RYAM has recorded losses from continuing operations for seven consecutive years and has been facing pressure this year to pursue a sale.
Private equity firm American Industrial Partners disclosed in February it made an offer to buy the company but was rejected by RYAM’s board of directors.
On June 17, Mill Pond Capital LLC Managing Member Daniel Farb sent a letter to the board urging it to sell the company.
Farb said Mill Pond owns 3% of RYAM’s shares and first invested in the company in 2019.
“I invested in RYAM believing the Company possessed genuinely excellent assets that were poorly managed – a fixable problem. What I underestimated was how durable RYAM’s financial underperformance would prove to be inside a subscale public company with structural disadvantages no management team can fully overcome,” the letter said.
Farb said RYAM’s assets would be “exceptionally attractive to the right partner” and should be sold.
Farb said he expressed his views to RYAM Board Chair Julie Dill in a phone conversation.
RYAM has not publicly responded to Farb’s letter.
Before joining RYAM, Krawczyk had been president of Huber Engineered Materials since 2017.
RYAM said in a news release that experience, “where he led the growth and operational transformation of a $1.3 billion global industrial and specialty chemicals portfolio,” made him a strong candidate to run the company.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by RYAM, Krawczyk’s employment agreement includes a bonus payment that would be accelerated and equity grants that would become vested in the event of a change of control of the company. But it doesn’t indicate any special payments tied to a sale of the company.
Sidoti analyst Daniel Harriman said in a research note that he considers Krawcyzk’s appointment to be neutral, in regard to the strategic review.
“We do not read the hiring of a permanent chief executive as a signal that RYAM intends either to operate as an independent company over the long term or to pursue a full sale. In our view, it sharpens accountability around execution while preserving the Board’s optionality across all paths,” Harriman said.
BAE Systems’ layoffs at its Jacksonville shipyards are at least the third layoff at the British-based company’s U.S. operations this year.
News4Jax reported June 11 that BAE is cutting nearly 200 of its 900 workers in Jacksonville. The company told News4Jax that it is scaling back the operations to match its expected workload.
BAE has not filed a notice about the layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. But WARNTracker.com reports BAE has filed notices for two other U.S. layoffs this year.
The company in January filed a WARN notice saying it was laying off 55 people at a facility in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, and another notice in March saying it was cutting 119 jobs in Vienna, Virginia.
A story by Virginia Business said the Vienna layoffs were tied to BAE losing an FBI contract.
BAE has operated the ship repair facility at 8500 Heckscher Drive since it acquired Jacksonville-based Atlantic Marine Holding Co. in 2010.
The facility along the St. Johns River is about 2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
BAE began a $200 million project in 2023 to upgrade the shipyard, saying at the time it expected to add 500 full-time jobs to the 650 workers it already employed at the facility.
BAE’s headcount has fluctuated in the past at the shipyards based on the workload.
After cutting 100 jobs in late 2015, it announced in January 2016 it would cut 300 of its remaining 700 jobs.
However, plans changed after some contract wins and the headcount stabilized at about 600 in mid-2016.
BAE is known largely as a global defense contractor.
It entered Northeast Florida in 2007 when it acquired Jacksonville-based defense contractor Armor Holdings Inc. for $4.5 billion.
Most of Armor’s big-ticket defense products were manufactured outside of Jacksonville, but it operated a plant at the Jacksonville International Tradeport that manufactured bulletproof vests and other law enforcement equipment.
BAE sold that business, which operated under the Safariland name, to former Armor CEO Warren Kanders in 2012.
Kanders renamed the company Cadre Holdings Inc. and took it public in 2021.
BAE has not yet filed a financial report for 2026. But in an update issued for the company’s annual meeting in May, CEO Charles Woodburn said in a statement the company was off to a strong start in the first four months of the year.
“Our geographic breadth, proven multi‑domain capabilities, and focus on operational excellence and innovation are enabling consistent delivery of critical programs. We’re well positioned for both current and future opportunities in defense,” he said.
Dream Finders Homes Inc. said in an SEC filing it moved its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas, effective June 9.
The Jacksonville-based homebuilder is following a trend of many large companies that had incorporated in Delaware, despite being headquartered elsewhere, because of a favorable business legal climate.
However, some unfavorable court rulings in Delaware in recent years have prompted some companies to reincorporate in other states with more business-friendly laws, a trend known as “Dexit.”
A year ago, Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. reincorporated from Delaware to Nevada but remains headquartered in Jacksonville.
Dream Finders said in a proxy statement for its June 8 annual shareholders meeting that it incorporated in Delaware in 2020 in connection with its initial public offering.
However, directors at a board meeting in July 2025 began considering a reincorporation, looking at Nevada and Texas.
The board determined that Texas “provides the best legal framework for the company,” the proxy said.
The reincorporation was approved by shareholders at the annual meeting, which was a foregone conclusion since founder and CEO Patrick Zalupski has voting control of 84% of the stock.
The company’s SEC filing after the meeting said the reincorporation does not result in any change in its business, jobs, management or properties.
RBC analyst Walter Spracklin said in a June 15 research note that investor meetings with two top CSX Corp. executives “left us incrementally more constructive on the company’s multi-year earnings and FCF (free cash flow) trajectory.”
Spracklin said the firm hosted meetings with Chief Financial Officer Kevin Boone and Chief Commercial Officer Maryclare Kenney.
“The new CEO is instilling a sharp, performance-driven culture centered on cost discipline, contribution-accretive pricing, and focused execution. We see a meaningful efficiency opportunity compounding over the medium term alongside a compelling volume growth pipeline,” he said.
Steve Angel joined CSX as chief executive in September 2025.
“The commercial reset and capital allocation discipline give us increased confidence in sustained FCF improvement,” said Spracklin who maintains an “outperform” rating on the Jacksonville-based railroad company.
Baird analyst Daniel Moore rates Jacksonville-based trucking company Landstar System Inc. as “outperform” but is urging near-term caution on the stock, which has risen by about 45% so far this year through June 22.
“While we remain constructive on Landstar’s longer-term earnings prospects, we believe the stock’s recent absolute and relative outperformance may limit near-term upside,” Moore said in a June 17 research note.
Moore said he is being cautious overall on transportation and logistics stocks.
“We continue to expect 2Q26 EPS to improve significantly from 1Q and believe management teams will sound very constructive given the improving dynamics, but prefer clients take a more opportunistic approach with purchases in the near-term given the stocks’ outperformance,” he said.
“That said, we expect the group to perform well during the fall peak based on improving base rates and supply/ demand fundamentals, which are likely to extend well into 2027.”