DuPont posts 2Q profit, results miss Wall Street estimates

Net income fell to $940 million, or $1.03 per share, from $1.07 billion, or $1.15 per share, a year earlier.

Sales for almost all of DuPont’s business sectors dropped in the second quarter. DuPont blamed the decrease on negative impact from currency, noting had the dollar remained strong overseas the unit’s sales would have decreased by 38 percent.

Consolidated net sales fell 11.5 percent to $8.60 billion, missing analysts’ average estimate of $8.75 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

That also missed average expectations of $9.28 billion. Earnings in the agriculture unit fell 6.9 percent as low corn and soybean prices eroded farmer finances.

Meanwhile agricultural chemical sales were down 21% thanks to “weaker market demand from farmers looking to reduce input costs and delay purchases, lower insect pressure in Brazil and the impact of higher inventories in the Americas”.

Excluding special items, operating earnings ticked up to $1.18 a share from $1.17 a share a year ago. That division posted $1.5 billion in revenue and $113 million in operating earnings in the latest quarter, both representing double-digit declines from the prior year amid lower prices for titanium dioxide. DuPont said without the negative impact of currency, sales would have increased by 10%. The company in April had forecast earnings at the low end of the $4.00-$4.20 range for the period.

Operating earnings for Performance Materials segment rose 8 percent year-over-year to $311 million, while Safety & Protection segment operating earnings declined 7 percent to $195 million.

Profit in 2015 will be $3.10 a share, DuPont said Tuesday in a statement. The unit, now called Chemours, is a separate public company. DuPont credited the increase improved productivity.

“We continued to improve margins across most of our ongoing businesses through our constant focus on productivity, even as we address industrywide challenges in agriculture and ongoing currency headwinds”, Chief Executive Ellen Kullman said.

Earlier this year, DuPont beat back a proxy vote that would have put an activist investor on the board.

In something of a surprise move, the company lowered the dividend it raised just last quarter from $0.49 per share per quarter to a new dividend payment of $0.38.

DuPont shares are down 43 cents to $56.30 in midday trading.