DowDuPont Unit To Invest In Flexible Alkoxylation Facility

DowDuPont Inc.’s (NYSE:DWDP) subsidiary — The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) — recently declared plans to invest in an alkoxylation facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The move is likely to support global growth in its core end-markets including personal care, infrastructure and home. Additionally, the facility will also support the company’s end-markets where it is strengthening position for its brands such as Triton, Ecosurf, Tergitol, Carbowax and Sentry.

Per the company, there is a strong demand for alkoxylate products across sectors like consumer, industrial and manufacturing. These investments will expand the production capacity and enable it to address value chain and customer needs.

Notably, the planned expansion is in addition to several incremental debottlenecking projects, which are being conducted across the company’s global alkoxylation production units. These projects are likely to support the growing demand in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

DowDuPont’s shares have gained 3.3% over the past three months, outperforming the industry’s 0.8% rise.

The company, during its first-quarter 2018 call, stated that it has realized cost-synergy savings of more than $300 million in the quarter and is on track to deliver a 75% run rate against its $3.3 billion cost-synergy target by the end of third-quarter 2018. It also returned around $2 billion to shareholders in the first quarter through dividends and share repurchases.

DowDuPont expects net sales in the second quarter to increase more than 10% and operating EBITDA to rise more than 20% on a year-over-year basis.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

DowDuPont currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the basic materials space are The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC) , FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) and Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Chemours has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 15.5%. Its shares have gained 32.1% in a year.

FMC Corp has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 14.3%. Its shares have moved up 19.4% in a year.

Westlake Chemical has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12.2%. Its shares have rallied 73.3% in a year.

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