DuPont Delivers Earnings, Sales Beat Ahead of Merger

By Imani Moise 

DuPont Co., looking to wrap up its merger with Dow Chemical Co., said its sales rose as the science company benefited from a change in the timing of seed deliveries.

The Delaware-based company also gave a downbeat outlook for the current quarter, projecting adjusted earnings of about $1.26 a share, below the Thomson Reuters consensus of $1.31 a share. As reported, DuPont expects earnings to fall about 5% due to merger related expenses.

Chief Executive Ed Breen reaffirmed that the pending merger is on track to be closed by August.

Agriculture sales, over 50% of total revenue, rose 3.8% during the first quarter as a change in the timing seed deliveries spurred volume growth. The impact of the timing change boosted overall sales by about 2%.

Volume growth also drove increased revenue across most of the company's businesses.

Like other seed makers, DuPont benefited from currency shifts in Latin America. Revenue in the region shot up 14%.

In all for the quarter ended in March, DuPont reported a profit of $1.12 billion or $1.27 a share, down from $1.23 billion or $1.39 a share a year earlier. Excluding items such as nonoperating pension costs, the company earned $1.64 a share up from $1.26.

Revenue rose 4.6% to $7.74 billion.

Analysts had forecast earnings of $1.39 a share on $7.5 billion in sales.

Shares, inactive premarket, have risen 8.1% to $79.37 so far this year.

Write to Imani Moise at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2017 07:23 ET (11:23 GMT)

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