DuPont (NYSE:DD), the chemical and crop company, lowered its forecast for the year after a stronger dollar and a sales drop in its agriculture segment affected results. It also cut its quarterly dividend. Shares fell.
The Wilmington, Delaware-based company said it expects its full-year operating earnings of about $3.10 per share. The company in April had forecast earnings at the low end of the $4.00-$4.20 range for the period.
Net income fell to $940 million, or $1.03 per share, from $1.07 billion, or $1.15 per share, a year earlier.
Operating earnings per share was $1.18 for the quarter.
Sales fell to $8.6 billion from $9.71 billion last year.
Analysts on average had been predicting earnings of $1.18 per share and revenue of $8.75 billion, according to Capital IQ.
The U.S. dollar's strength against other currencies has made DuPont's seeds, crop sprays and chemical products more expensive for overseas buyers. Currency impacts brought down sales by 5 percent in the quarter.
Agricultural sales fell 11 percent to $3.22 billion amid a 6 percent drop in volume and a 5 percent currency impact.
Performance Materials' sales declined 14 percent to $1.365 billion, impacted by the portfolio change from the sale of Glass Laminating Solutions/Vinyls, and a negative impact from an unplanned ethylene outage.
In Performance Chemicals, sales dropped 11 percent to $1.502 billion, driven primarily by lower prices for titanium dioxide. The company recently completed the separation of this segment.
"We continued to improve margins across most of our ongoing businesses through our constant focus on productivity, even as we address industrywide challenges in agriculture and ongoing currency headwinds," chief Executive Ellen Kullman said in a statement.
DuPont's board lowered its quarterly dividend to $0.38 per share from $0.49 per share. This dividend is payable on September 11 to stockholders of record at the close of business on August 14.