DuPont de Nemours (DD)

Continuing Operations After the Electronics Spin

DuPont is two businesses moving in opposite directions, and its group numbers hide that. On 1 November 2025 it spun off its Electronics business as Qnity, so every FY2025 figure here is for the continuing operations: water filtration and healthcare materials in one segment, industrial specialties in the other.

Continuing net sales were $6,849M. Organic sales, which exclude currency, acquisitions and disposals, grew 2%: volume +3%, price −1%, currency flat. Healthcare & Water Technologies grew 7% organically while Diversified Industrials fell 2%.

DuPont prints no gross profit line, so gross margin is derived: ($6,849M − $4,486M) ÷ $6,849M = 34.5%, 150 bps above 33.0% in FY2024 on the same basis. Operating EBITDA margin, on DuPont's own definition, was 23.8% ($1,628M), up from 22.8%. Pre-spin history includes Electronics, so do not compare it with these figures without adjustment.

How the Numbers Read

DuPont's prices fell on rising volume, while Ecolab raised prices 2%, PPG 1% and Sherwin-Williams' Paint Stores by a mid-single-digit percentage. Falling price on rising volume is the commodity pattern the specialty versus commodity guide warns about. Here the shrinking industrial segment is the likelier source, so read the two segments separately.

The gross margin rose while prices fell. That gain came from volume, mix or cost, and the margin alone cannot say which.

DuPont's operating EBITDA margin is the highest of the six large specialty groups profiled here, just above Ecolab's 23.4%, though each defines EBITDA its own way. Its gross margin is below Sherwin-Williams, Ecolab and PPG (41.3% to 48.8%), so DuPont converts more of its gross profit into EBITDA than they do.

Net debt at the end of FY2025 was about 1.5 times operating EBITDA (about $2,480M), derived from the filings, which is below the target of under 2.0 times DuPont set at its September 2025 Investor Day. It is the lowest ratio of the six, each on its own definition; PPG is next at 1.9x.

DuPont does not file an FY2025 ROIC. The same Investor Day listed ROIC above WACC among the criteria an acquisition must meet: a test for deals, not a reported return on the existing business. The ROIC guide shows how to build a company's own figure.

Valuation Framework

The method has to run segment by segment. A water business growing 7% and an industrial business shrinking 2% carry different growth, margins and returns on new capital, and one group multiple blurs them. The premium valuation guide covers the sector multiples, and IFF is another specialty portfolio being reshaped.

What to Watch in the Financials

Segment organic growth. Model Healthcare & Water and Diversified Industrials separately; the group figure is only their weighted result.

Definitions. Label the gross margin as derived, and reconcile operating EBITDA before setting it beside another company's adjusted EBITDA.

Key Risks

Portfolio churn. The Electronics spin is the latest of several reshapes, and each sale or purchase changes the segments again. Whether the company reads as specialty depends on what it still owns.

Industrial softness. Diversified Industrials' organic decline in FY2025 held back group growth.

Healthcare regulation. The Healthcare & Water segment carries regulatory and customer-concentration risks unlike a coatings company's demand cycle.