DuPont swings to a £495 million loss in Q1 as Coronavirus weighs on performance

DuPont Inc. (NYSE: DD) swung to a loss of £495 million in the first quarter that translates to 66.6 pence per share. In the comparable quarter last year, the company had recorded £418.50 million in profit. In its report on Tuesday, the company also cited the Coronavirus uncertainty as it announced a roughly £400 million cut on capital expenditures this year.

As per the announcement, DuPont has upgraded its annual target for cost-savings in 2020. The company now estimates around £145 million in savings this year.

DuPont’s Q1 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

According to Refinitiv, experts had forecast the company to generate £4.07 billion worth of sales in the first quarter. Their estimate for earnings per share (EPS) was capped at 60 pence per share. In its financial report on Tuesday, DuPont topped both estimates posting £4.19 billion in sales and 67 pence of earnings per share.

DuPont attributed upbeat quarterly sales to its nutrition and biosciences, and electronics and imaging businesses. On an annualized basis, however, the maker of the industrial material noted a drop in sales from £4.35 billion in the same quarter last year.  According to CEO Ed Breen of DuPont:

“Through April, we continue to see strength in personal protection, water filtration, food and beverage, electronics and probiotics. Automotive, oil and gas, and select industrial end markets continue to suffer.”

The Wilmington-headquartered company further highlighted that the rising uncertainty ascribed to the Coronavirus disables it from giving meaningful guidance as DuPont withdrew its full-year sales and earnings outlook on Tuesday.

DuPont accelerates the production of personal protective equipment

Contributing to the global battle against the flu-like virus that has so far infected more than 3.6 million people worldwide and has caused over 250,000 deaths, DuPont accentuated to have ramped up its production of PPE (personal protective equipment). Tyvek garments’ production, the company added, has been increased by over 9 million per month that marks twice as much as the company has produced during any prior crisis.

At £37 per share, DuPont is currently a little more than 25% down year to date in the stock market. In March, the company had dropped to as low as £23 per share. Its performance in 2019, on the contrary, was reported largely upbeat with an annual gain of over 60%.

At the time of writing, DuPont has a market cap of £26.36 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 67.51.