DowDuPont’s (DWDP) shares gained over 6% in morning trade on Thursday after the company topped expectations on earnings for the third quarter of 2018. Revenues, however, came in shy of estimates. Analysts had projected earnings of $0.71 per share on revenues of $20.3 billion.
Net sales grew 10% year-over-year to $20.1 billion, helped by increases across all divisions and regions. Asia-Pacific saw a double-digit growth in net sales while all other regions saw growth in the high single digits. Volume was up 5%, on a pro forma basis, with gains in all divisions and regions.
The company saw sales and volume increases across all its segments and divisions, with the exception of Performance Materials & Coatings where volume declined 1%, mainly due to price/volume management in the Consumer Solutions business.
Howard Ungerleider, CFO, said, “Global demand for our products remains strong, supported by solid fundamentals, including business investment, manufacturing output, job growth and wage increases. Going forward, we remain well-positioned to continue to drive top-line gains from above-GDP demand growth for our products and new product launches, while further delivering productivity and cost synergy savings.”
During the quarter, DowDuPont achieved cost synergy savings of more than $450 million, and has delivered over $1.3 billion in cumulative savings since the close of the merger. The company is increasing its cost synergy target to $3.6 billion and the expected 2018 year-over-year savings target to $1.5 billion.
DowDuPont also announced a new share repurchase program of $3 billion, which it expects to complete by the first intended spin. The company expects to complete the separations of its Material Science division on April 1 followed by the Agriculture and Specialty Products division on June 1, 2019.
The company expects adjusted EPS for the full year of 2018 to grow in the low 20% range versus the previous year.