|
DuPont 4Q profits drop
|
 |
January 26, 2000: 10:49 a.m. ET
Decline blamed on lower prices, higher costs, but earnings still beat Street
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - DuPont reported a 14 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits Wednesday, reflecting lower selling prices and higher raw materials costs, but the results beat Wall Street's per-share estimates by a penny.
The Wilmington, Del.-based chemicals manufacturer earned $583 million, or 55 cents per diluted share, excluding one-time items, down from $682 million, or 60 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
The consensus estimate from earnings tracker First Call Corp. was for the company to earn 54 cents per share for the quarter.
Sales rose 17 percent to $7.1 billion.
The company said that despite the lower year-over-year results, business conditions are improving significantly with an 11 percent volume increase, excluding products from acquired businesses. Volume reached its highest level since the first quarter of 1995.
"Lower selling prices and higher raw material costs remain a concern to us," CEO Charles O. Holliday Jr. said. "But, with improving global business conditions, particularly in Asia, we remain confident of our double-digit earnings growth goal in 2000."
For the year, income totaled $7.7 billion, or $6.99 per diluted share, which includes a gain of $7.3 billion, or $6.65 per share, relating to the divestiture of the company's energy unit Conoco.
That compares with 1998 earnings of $4.5 billion, or $3.90 per share, including one-time gains.
Sales rose 9 percent to $26.9 billion.
Stock in DuPont (DD), a Dow industrials component, rose 2 to 63-1/2 in morning trading. 
|
|
|
DuPont
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
