DuPont Sales Rise 9%, but Miss Estimates

Shares are losing nearly 4%.
By TSC Staff ,

DuPont

(DD) - Get Report

said its first-quarter sales rose 9% owing to strength in its agriculture segment and emerging markets businesses, but still fell a bit short of the top line analysts wanted to see.

The Wilmington, Del., science company had sales of $8.58 billion in the quarter, up from $7.85 billion last year. Sales outside the U.S. represented 62% of the total, and rose 16%, while domestic sales were flat with the year-ago quarter.

DuPont, a component of the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

, earned $1.19 billion, or $1.31 a share, compared with last year's $945 million, or $1.01 a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were calling for a profit of $1.28 a share and sales of $8.61 billion.

One of the highlights of the quarter was the agriculture and nutrition unit, whose sales increased 18% to $2.9 billion, which the company attributed to "strong global demand favoring seed technology and crop protection products."

Prices for agricultural commodities -- along with energy and metals -- have been booming for months, and that has stoked investor interest in seed and fertilizer names like

Monsanto

(MON)

,

Mosaic

(MOS) - Get Report

and

Potash

(POT)

, whose shares have been soaring amid heightened demand for their services.

Meanwhile, sales in emerging markets jumped 25%, led by Brazil, China, India and Eastern Europe, DuPont said.

On the downside for the quarter, reduced demand in the U.S. for the company's products sold into construction and motor vehicle markets moderated the results of the safety and protection unit and the coatings and color technologies division.

"We're off to a strong start for the year," said DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles Holliday Jr., in a press release. "Our investments in agriculture and emerging markets enabled us to capitalize on robust growth in those areas which, when combined with gains from our productivity improvement programs, more than offset higher ingredient costs and weakness in certain U.S. markets. We'll continue to drive faster revenue growth from science-based, high value-added products and greater productivity."

DuPont affirmed its full-year earnings outlook of $3.40 to $3.55 a share and its first-half projection for profit growth of about 10%, excluding significant items. The company also said it continues to expect second-quarter earnings of around $1.05 a share. Analysts are anticipating $3.48 for the year and $1.08 for the quarter.

For the rest of 2008, DuPont predicted that slowing demand in U.S. markets, including construction and motor vehicles, will offset growth in agriculture and other markets outside the country.

Shares of DuPont were losing 3.8% to $50.28. Competitor

Dow Chemical

(DOW) - Get Report

was down 1.8% to $39.24.

The company was one of three Dow stocks reporting their results Tuesday. As for the other two,

McDonald's

(MCD) - Get Report

exceeded analysts' estimates for its first quarter, while

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

met expectations.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.

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