By Jack Kaskey
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- DuPont Co., the third-biggest U.S. chemical producer, said second-quarter profit rose 11 percent as record crop prices boosted sales of pesticides and seeds. The results topped estimates, and the shares rose.
Net income increased to $1.08 billion, or $1.18 a share, from $972 million, or $1.04, a year earlier, Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont said today in a statement. The company raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast.
Chief Executive Officer Charles O. Holliday Jr. is expanding outside the U.S. and investing in the Pioneer unit, the world's second-largest seed producer, as record grain prices give farmers more to spend. Profit rose 18 percent in the agricultural unit. Earnings also gained in the coatings business, the world's biggest auto-paint maker, amid higher emerging-market sales.
``Agriculture was stronger than we were expecting, but the pleasant surprise was coatings, where they have maximum exposure to autos and housing,'' HSBC Securities analyst Hassan Ahmed said in an interview from New York. ``Despite energy and macroeconomic headwinds, these guys beat the number handily.'' He rates the shares ``overweight.''
Excluding the benefits of a litigation settlement and a lower tax rate, profit was $1.11 a share, topping the $1.07 average estimate of 14 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
DuPont rose $1.06, or 2.4 percent, to $45.11 at 11:43 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares were little changed this year through yesterday.
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