DuPont shares surge after profit nearly triples

NEW YORK (Reuters) - DuPont on Tuesday said its second-quarter profit nearly tripled due to a surge in sales and volume across all six of its business segments, sending its shares up 3.3 percent in premarket trading.

The results from the third-largest chemical maker in the United States offer a positive outlook on the global economic recovery, and come as Wall Street is looking for a ray of sunshine after an unusually glum past few weeks.

The Wilmington, Delaware-based company, known as E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co, also raised its 2010 earnings guidance to a range above Wall Street's expectations.

"This is as good a quarter as I've seen DuPont report in a long time," said Deutsche Bank analyst David Begleiter. "The fact that they're raising guidance ... and noting some signs of recovery, is evidence that there hasn't been a market slowdown of macroeconomic activity yet."

The company said net income rose to $1.17 billion, or $1.26 per share, from $417 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the company posted a profit on Tuesday of $1.17 per share.

Analysts expected earnings of 94 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. If was not immediately clear if the numbers were comparable.

Revenue rose 25.6 percent to $8.62 billion. Analysts expected $8.27 billion.

DuPont raised its 2010 earnings forecast to a range of $2.90 to $3.05 per share, excluding one-time items. It had previously forecast $2.50 to $2.70.

Analysts expect 2010 earnings of $2.64 per share.

UNIT SPECIFICS

The company's agricultural & nutrition unit, which holds its Pioneer business, saw sales rise 16 percent and operating profit increase 31 percent.

DuPont rival Monsanto Co posted a 45 percent drop in fiscal third-quarter income last month, due in part to weakness in its herbicide business.

"Pioneer has taken advantage of what the marketplace has to offer right now," Deutsche Bank's Begleiter said. "They're executing very well."

In May, the Environmental Protection Agency approved DuPont's "refuge-in-the-bag" version of Optimum AcreMax I seeds, a product that is expected to help the company better compete with Monsanto.

Elsewhere, the company's safety & protection unit, which makes Kevlar bulletproof vests, saw sales and volume jump 27 percent. The electronics and communications unit saw sales rise 53 percent with volume up 48 percent. And the performance materials unit reported sales rose 45 percent and volume increased 35 percent.

Bank of America named Charlie Holliday, DuPont's former chair and chief executive, as its chairman in April.

Shares of DuPont, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI>, rose $1.29, or 3.3 percent, to $40.28 in premarket trading. The stock has traded between $29.19 and $41.45 in the past 52 weeks.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)

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