DuPont announces $5bn share buyback after earnings beat

American chemicals giant DuPont de Nemours announced a mammoth $5bn share buyback on Tuesday, as it reported a 4% improvement in third quarter net sales to $3.3bn, with organic sales up 11% year-on-year.

That was ahead of expectations for sales of $3.22bn, with the growth stronger than the 2% the company had been anticipating.

Earnings from continuing operations totalled 69 cents, and adjusted earnings per share were up 4% year-on-year at 82 cents.

Analysts had pencilled in adjusted earnings of 79 cents per share for the third quarter.

Following the termination of its acquisition of electronic materials firm Rogers Corporation on 1 November due to a lack of regulatory clearance, DuPont announced a new share buyback programme on Tuesday.

The board said it had approved a $5bn repurchase programme, with an accelerated $3.25bn buyback to be executed “imminently”.

It also announced its intention to retire $2.5bn worth of senior notes due in November next year, as part of its “balanced” capital allocation framework.

“As demonstrated by our third quarter results, demand across most of our key end-markets remained strong in the period and our teams continued to successfully execute in a challenging macro environment marked by inflation and foreign currency headwinds,” said chief financial officer Lori Koch.

“For the fourth quarter, we expect demand to remain strong in most end-markets, notably water, industrial and auto adhesives, but do anticipate continued softness in consumer electronics globally and some expected slowing in customer semiconductor fab production rates.

“Further, we plan to reduce our production rates to realign working capital in anticipation of a more normal supply chain environment.”

Koch said the company also expected incremental currency headwinds to further impact both the top and bottom-line results.

“As we look to close out the year, our expectation for full year organic sales growth of high-single digits remains unchanged.

“Our updated full year adjusted EPS guidance is inclusive of a nine-cent headwind resulting from an increase in the anticipated tax rate for the full year 2022, offset by an assumed lower share count resulting from planned share repurchases and net interest benefits expected to be realised related to cash proceeds received from the M&M transaction.”

At 0617 EST (1117 GMT), shares in DuPont de Nemours were up 1.23% in pre-market trading, at $62.50.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.