Does Billionaire Nelson Peltz See Something In E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (DD)?

Other diversified chemicals companies include The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD). The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW)’s earnings per share is expected to normalize next year, with the current price representing a forward P/E of 12- in line with where DuPont trades. Its dividend yield of 3.8% should be even more appealing to income investors than DuPont, though the beta of 2.0 would not be optimal for more defensive minded investors. The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW)’s business has also been struggling overall with sales down 2% in its last quarterly report compared to the first quarter of 2012. Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) has been seeing revenue growth, but lower margins have kept net income more or less stable. It trades at a small premium to Dow and DuPont on a forward basis, at 16 times consensus earnings for the next fiscal year, even though its performance hasn’t been remarkably better.

Overall E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) appears to be a mature company, but it does have an intriguing asset in its agriculture business. It’s possible that the market is downplaying the possibility of this segment driving improved financials in the long run. If that is the case then the forward P/E of 13 could prove an attractive price, and so we’d be interested in learning more about the company and Peltz’s strategy for DuPont.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.