By golly, I've found one: a major U.S. company that has
increased its earnings from a year ago. Chemical giant
DuPont (NYSE: DD), while experiencing lower
revenues year-on-year, managed to increase its earnings in
the most recent quarter. We'll watch on Thursday for a
similar
performance when
Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) and
Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN) report.
For the period, the company surprised us with an 11%
year-on-year increase in its earnings. Those earnings grew to
$409 million, or $0.45 per share, from $367 million, or $0.40
a share for the same quarter of 2008, topping analysts' per
share expectations by a dozen cents! Sales, however, dipped
18% to $5.96 billion, from $7.30 billion last year. When
comparing quarters, keep in mind last year's numbers included
a $0.16 per share hurricane-related charge.
DuPontsuffered revenue reduction in all of its regions --
with Europe, the Middle East, and Africa leading the parade
with a 27% drop. Nevertheless, only its Agriculture &
Nutrition unit among its segments turned in a pre-tax
operating loss. The negative $113 million grew from a
negative $21 million in the third quarter of 2008.
Staying focused on pre-tax operating income, both Coatings
& Color Technologies and Electronic & Communication
Technologies were down by single digit percentages, but both
were solidly positive. Performance Materials turned last
year's $91 million pre-tax loss to a positive $230 million,
yet it's only fair to point out that the earlier number
included $216 million in hurricane-related charges. Finally,
Safety & Protection dipped from $251 million to $93
million on lower demand and an impairment charge.
Were there any other things helping the quarter's
earnings? Sure. Quite simply, as still new CEO Ellen Kullman
noted in the company's conference call, "we delivered $900
million in savings through the third quarter and are closing
in on our $1 billion goal for the year. We remain vigilant
about keeping about $750 million of these cost reductions out
long term."
Looking ahead, the company revised its earnings outlook
for this year to a range of $1.95 to $2.05 per share, a
switch to the upper end of its earlier $1.70 to $2.10. So it
appears early on that the chemical business may not have been
blasted as badly as some other industries. In
addition to Dowand Eastman, still waiting in the wings to
report are the chemical likes of
FMC (NYSE: FMC) and
Celanese (NYSE: CE).
In the meantime, however, I'd urge my Foolish friends to
consider pouring a beaker of DuPont shares into their
portfolios.
Motley Fool CAPSplayers
have rated DuPont a four-star company. I'd suggest you hit
the
company'sCAPS page and weigh in with your
opinion.
This article was originally published as
Dupont Clobbers the Street's Estimateson
Fool.com
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