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DuPont slips as Q1 sales and profit miss on severe winter

Published: 14:26 17 Apr 2014 EDT

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DuPont Co. (NYSE:DD), the largest U.S. chemical maker by market value, dropped in midday trading after reporting lower-than-expected first-quarter sales and earnings.

The shares, a Dow 30 component, were down 1 percent at $67.06 at 1:50 a.m. in New York, trimming this year's gains to 3.2 percent.

Revenue slid 2.7 percent to $10.1 billion in the three months ended March 31, the Wilmington, Delaware–based company said in a statement today. That result lagged behind the $10.4 billion average of analysts’ estimates, according to Bloomberg. 

Stripping out one-time items, earnings were $1.58 per share, missing the $1.59 average projection.

Overall, net income dropped by almost half to $1.44 billion, or $1.54 per share, from $3.35 billion, or $3.58 per share, a year earlier.

DuPont's net income plummeted as the company sold its performance coating business, which added almost $2 billion to earnings in the year-earlier quarter, to Carlyle Group in February.

DuPont, the maker of Pioneer genetically modified corn, cautioned last month that its earnings would be hurt by the unusually harsh winter as well as unrest in Ukraine. The company said today that corn plantings were also lower than expected in Brazil in the quarter. 

The cold has disrupted planting even as U.S. farmers plan to sow a record soybean crop this year as prices climb.

Operating income for DuPont’s agricultural segment, the company’s largest by revenue, slipped 5 percent while its sales declined 6 percent. Three months ago, DuPont said the unit’s revenue would be essentially flat.

Earnings were up in five of the company’s seven divisions. The electronics and communications segment posted a 53 percent gain after demand climbed for photovoltaic products, Bloomberg reported, citing a slide presentation. Profit climbed 37 percent at the industrial biosciences division, which makes enzymes used in the production of biofuels.

Looking ahead, the company maintained its full-year earnings outlook at $4.20 to $4.45 a share.

"We will continue to operate our businesses with focused discipline and increasing productivity, Chief Executive Officer Ellen Kullman said in the statement. "We expect steady growth in industrial production to continue to drive increases in demand for DuPont products worldwide." 

DuPont, founded in 1802 to make gunpowder, produces thousands of products from Corian countertops to Tyvek weather barrier and Kevlar anti-ballistic fiber.


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