DuPont Reports 1Q Operating EPS(1) of $1.26 and GAAP EPS of $1.39

First-Quarter Highlights

First-quarter operating earnings1 were $1.26 per share, equal to the prior year. Excluding $0.10 per share of negative impact from currency, operating EPS1 increased 8 percent versus prior year. GAAP2 earnings per share were $1.39 versus $1.11 in prior year.
Operating costs3 declined by approximately $135 million, a 7 percent reduction versus prior year. Corporate expenses, on an operating earnings1 basis, declined 44 percent versus prior year.
Local price and product mix gains of 2 percent in Agriculture and 3 percent volume growth in Nutrition & Health were more than offset by declines in most of the other segments, resulting in sales declining 2 percent, excluding currency. Currency negatively impacted sales by an additional 4 percent.
Agriculture sales reflected benefits from local price and product mix, higher corn area and a strong start to the North American corn season more than offset by negative currency impact and lower crop protection and soybean volumes.

Segment pre-tax operating earnings1 of $1,717 million included approximately $110 million of negative impact from currency. Operating margins expanded in Protection Solutions, Industrial Biosciences, Nutrition & Health and Agriculture. DuPont now expects full-year 2016 operating earnings1 to be in the range of $3.05 – $3.20 per share, an increase of $0.10 per share from the previous outlook. DuPont , a science company that brings world-class, innovative products, materials, and services to the global marketplace, today announced first-quarter 2016 operating earnings1 of $1.26 per share compared with $1.26 per share in the prior year. GAAP2 earnings were $1.39 per share, compared with $1.11 per share in the prior year. Refer to Schedule B for details of significant items.

First-quarter sales totaled $7.4 billion, a decline of 6 percent versus prior year due to negative impacts from currency (4 percent) and volume (2 percent).Today, DuPont’s board of directors approved a second-quarter dividend of $0.38 per share, the 447th consecutive quarterly dividend since the company’s first dividend in the fourth quarter of 1904. The second-quarter dividend of $0.38 per share of common stock is payable on June 10, 2016, to stockholders of record at the close of business on May 13, 2016. Regular quarterly dividends of $1.125 per share on the $4.50 series preferred stock and $0.875 cents per share on the $3.50 series preferred stock also were declared, both payable on July 25, 2016, to stockholders of record as of July 8, 2016.

“Solid execution, local price and product mix gains, and higher corn area led to a strong start to the year for our Ag business,” said Ed Breen, Chair and CEO of DuPont. “Our other businesses generally performed well, slightly above our expectations. We made progress with our global cost savings and restructuring plan and are on track for savings of $730 million in 2016, including significant improvements in our corporate cost performance.” He added, “We also continued to achieve key milestones in our intended merger of equals with Dow and as we look ahead to the rest of the year, we remain focused on accelerating our value-creation work, investing in our core franchises, and closing the intended merger of equals.”