Dow Chemical
For The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), it starts with its diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses. The portfolio has been a strong performer as The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW)’s Q1 financial results can attest. Some of the highlights include earnings per share growing 31% year-over-year with pricing gains, margin expansion and EBITDA growth. The big growth driver for the company is its emerging markets business for which the company recorded volume gains. The strong earnings results put the Street in buying mode as the shares rose over 5% on the day.
The growth is expected to continue as analysts are projecting EPS of $2.34 for the year, up 23%, followed up with a $2.90 figure in 2014, tacking on another 24% of EPS growth. The company’s focus on cost containment and cost cutting is evident in the strong EPS growth expected for the company on very marginally sales growth figures of 4% in each of the two years. Growth brings out buyers and nothing says buy like putting up EPS growth of 20% in back-to-back years.
The company’s focus on innovation has made The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) one of the largest and most successful chemical companies in the world. The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW)’s innovation doesn’t stop at chemicals; the company is committed to innovating in all parts of its businesses. Further evidence of that was seen in February when The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) signed on with EasyMed Services for a trial of the International Medical Passport. The Passport makes medical records accessible worldwide together with instant access to pre-approved doctors, clinics and hospitals around the world. Needless to say, this is an excellent added-value benefit for the company’s executives considering all of the travel they do with the company’s customers in 160 countries. The trial will be implemented as a first step to allow staff to securely download their medical files on to their smartphones. The Medical Passport works on all phone, PDA and web platforms and operates in over 80 countries with 300+ mobile carriers.
DuPont
E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD)’s Q1 results were similarly as impressive as shares rose 4%. The highlights of the quarter include the following: sales of $10.4 billion were up 2%, reflecting volume growth; record Agriculture operating earnings of $1.5 billion were up 13% with sales increasing 14%. The company also completed the sale of the Performance Coatings segment and executed a $1 billion share buyback and reduced its net debt. Similarly to Dow Chemical, the company has a cost focus with its cost productivity gains and restructuring savings on track to meet or exceed full year targets. Lastly, the company reaffirmed full year guidance.
There is a hidden catalyst with E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) as one analyst called for the company to sell its TiO2 unit and some direction may be given at the end of this week. E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) “should and likely will look to divest” its titanium dioxide, or TiO2 business Deutsche Bank analyst David Begleiter told clients. The broker said the sale would be a “game changer” for E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD)’s stock price, which could rise by up to $8 a share after a successful sale process for the TiO2 unit. Mr. Begleiter thinks the company could highlight that the division isn’t as core as it once was and points out that DuPont has a track record of selling businesses which don’t have differentiated brands in the eyes of consumers.
The article Dow Chemical’s and DuPont’s Growth Are Attractive for Prospective Buyers originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Divyesh Dhanani.
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