DuPont announced that earnings from operations in the fourth quarter were $668 million, compared to $183 million a year earlier. For the full year, DuPont reported $3.6 billion in net income, compared to $2.9 billion a year earlier.
Results came in below Wall Street estimates, but also came during a choppy period for the stock market. Earnings by DuPont and other companies with large overseas operations were hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar
DuPont is under pressure from activist shareholder Nelson Peltz, who is trying to put a slate of directors on the board of the company.
Peltz claims current management is operating the company with excessive overhead costs and is pushing for additional spin-offs of businesses.
“Our 2014 results demonstrate continued progress on our strategic plan to deliver higher growth and higher value, including ongoing portfolio refinement through several strategic portfolio actions and steady progress on the planned Chemours separation, substantial cost reductions from our operational redesign and productivity initiatives, and the continued return of capital to our shareholders through $2 billion of share repurchases and an increase in the common stock dividend of 4 percent,” CEO Ellen Kullman said.
“Rapid progress in our redesign initiative has enabled us to achieve a $1 billion run-rate target by year end 2015, well ahead of schedule, and we have identified at least $300 million of additional opportunities to streamline our operations and reduce costs. This initiative remains a priority and we expect to see further results over time,” Kullman added. “In 2015, we remain focused on generating superior returns for our shareholders, including through return of capital from the expected Chemours dividend, while positioning DuPont for our next stage of growth.”
. The company has increased its cost reduction commitment from its operational redesign by about $300 million to at least $1.3 billion of total expected savings by 2017. Additionally, by the end of 2015, the company now expects annual run-rate savings of about $1 billion, significantly ahead of its previously announced schedule.
In addition the company said it expects to return all or substantially all of the one-time dividend proceeds from Chemours to DuPont shareholders via share repurchases over the 12 to 18 months following the separation of Chemours. Based on the target BB credit rating of Chemours, this amount is anticipated to be about $4 billion, pending the final credit ratings and underlying business conditions for Chemours.
The company forecasted 2015 operating earnings of $4.00 to $4.20 per share, including the full-year outlook for the Performance Chemicals segment. This estimate includes an near $0.60 per share negative currency impact due to the recent strengthening of the dollar based upon an average basket of exchange rates for our business at January 23.
The currency impact is expected to be most significant in the first half of the year due to the seasonality of operating earnings from agriculture in the northern hemisphere.
