DuPont delivered an impressive earnings beat on Tuesday by navigating disruptions from the war in Iran, sending shares of the maker of medical packaging, clean-water technology, and industrial products soaring. Challenges remain, but we’re not selling into strength. Revenue in the three months ended in March rose 4% to $1.68 billion, topping the LSEG consensus of $1.67 billion. On an organic basis, sales grew 2% from the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) totaled 55 cents, ahead of the 48-cent consensus, LSEG data showed. Adjusted EPS jumped 53% from a year ago. Shares of DuPont soared 9% on Tuesday to over $49 apiece. The stock closed above $51 a share on a couple of occasions in February following its strong fourth-quarter results . But not long after, the Iran war broke out, pressuring the stock ever since as investors feared a hit to DuPont’s business. Shares entered Tuesday’s session down almost 10% from their prewar levels. It is a “great time to not sell your DuPont,” Jim Cramer said on Tuesday’s Morning Meeting. DD YTD mountain DuPont’s year-to-date stock performance. Bottom line DuPont is doing a commendable job of navigating the fallout from the war in Iran, and the market is clearly recognizing this in its stock reaction. The conflict is impacting the company in two primary ways. The first is a direct hit to its Water Technologies unit in the first quarter, which saw a mid-single-digit organic decline due to logistics disruptions in the Middle East. The region relies heavily on DuPont’s desalination technology to turn salt water into clean drinking water, so it’s a key hub for the business on both the consumption and production sides . About $10 million in sales couldn’t be shipped out of the Middle East in the quarter. Without that hit, organic sales for Water Technologies would’ve been flat to slightly down. Now for the good news: Those stranded orders have already shipped in April. In other words, it’s delayed revenue, not lost revenue. Plus, DuPont isn’t baking in “a ton of disruption” for this business tied to the Middle East in the second quarter, CEO Lori Koch said. Its full-year guidance of mid-single-digit organic growth is also on track. Other parts of its water business — most notably, its purification technology used in semiconductor manufacturing — saw strong volumes in the quarter. This is one way that DuPont benefits from the artificial intelligence boom. Why we own it DuPont represents an industrial way to play the semiconductor and electronics recovery, which has strong multiyear outlooks driven by advancements in artificial intelligence. DuPont’s plan to break itself up has sweetened the fundamental investment case. Competitors: 3M , PPG Industries Portfolio weighting: 1.88% Most recent buy: Aug. 5, 2025 Initiated: Aug. 7, 2023 The big thing to watch is whether some large desalination projects in the Middle East slated for the second half of the year get off the ground as planned. “Right now,…
Read More: DuPont is ripping higher after an impressive beat — here’s our next move