(Reuters) – Corteva Inc on Thursday raised its net sales forecast for the year, after strong demand for crop protection products like herbicides and insecticides helped the agricultural company beat estimates in the second quarter.
The company, spun off in 2019 after a merger of Dow Chemical and Dupont, has laid off employees and retired some assets to cut costs. Last month, it said Chief Executive Officer James Collins Jr will retire, months after activist investor Starboard Value LP sought to oust him.
The company forecast 2021 net sales between $15.2 billion and $15.4 billion, versus an earlier estimate of $14.6 billion to $14.8 billion. Analysts were expecting $14.82 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES.
The Wilmington, Delaware-based company said operating earnings per share rose to $1.04 billion, or $1.40 per share, for the second quarter ended June 30, from $944 million, or $1.26 per share, last year.
Net sales rose 8.4% to $5.63 billion, surpassing an estimate of $5.33 billion, while total crop protection sales jumped about 12% to $1.85 billion.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
