Wilmington, DL, January 24, 2006--DuPont Co., said its fourth-quarter profit dropped 45 percent and predicted that first-quarter earnings will also decline.
The company earned $153 million, or $0.16 per share, in the fourth quarter, down from $278 million, or 0.28 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2004. Excluding certain items, the company said it would have earned 13 cents per share. The adjusted figure is 3 cents higher than the 10 cents per share DuPont predicted on Jan. 11, which is also what analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected.
Revenue rose 3 percent to $6.24 billion from $6.03 billion, though sales volume declined 4 percent. Revenue from agriculture and nutrition products declined 6 percent to $900 million, and coatings and color revenue fell 4 percent to $1.5 billion.
"We will continue to face challenging headwinds during 2006," chairman and chief executive Charles O. Holliday Jr., said in a statement. Earlier this month, the company cut its fourth-quarter earnings outlook by about half, citing hurricanes, plant outages, higher raw-material costs and lower sales of crop protection products.
DuPont said first-quarter profit should come in around 0.70 a share, lower than the 96 cents per share it earned in the first three months of 2005 and below analysts' current mean projection of 0.99 per share.
For 2006, DuPont forecastedearnings of $2.60 per share. Analysts are looking for profit of $2.83 per share.
For all 2005, DuPont earned $2.05 billion, or $2.07 per share, on sales of $28.49 billion. Excluding items, DuPont would have earned $2.34 per share.
