(Reuters) -DuPont de Nemours beat Wall Street expectations for third-quarter profit as strong demand for electronics and other industrial products helped it offset cost pressures, sending its shares up nearly 3% in premarket trading.
The industrial materials maker also announced a new $5 billion share repurchase program and said it plans to retire $2.5 billion in long-term debt, but kept its full-year sales forecast unchanged.
The company has been grappling with rising costs for raw materials and energy due to a decades-high inflation, prompted by the pandemic and now intensified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
DuPont Chief Financial Officer Lori Koch, however, said for the fourth quarter, “expect demand to remain strong in most end-markets, notably water, industrial and auto adhesives, but do anticipate continued softness in consumer electronics globally.”
Sales from the electronics and industrial unit, one of the company’s highest revenue generating segments, rose 2.9% to $1.51 billion in the reported quarter, while the water and protection segment raked in $1.53 billion, up nearly 10% from a year earlier.
Sustained demand helped the company shore up third-quarter revenue of $3.3 billion, up nearly 4% from last year.
Its adjusted earnings of 82 cents per share in the three months ended Sept. 30, came above analysts’ average expectation of 79 cents per share.
Meanwhile, net income fell to $376 million, or 73 cents per share, from $404 million, or 75 cents per share, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
