The merger has been a good move, taking the best of each company: seed business with agriculture operation, material science with speciality products. They will focus far more on returning on capital, reduce risk with less volatility and generally be a more efficient group of three companies vs. their peers. An interesting opportunity.

A Top Pick October 23, 2017. Down 9%). The merger has gone through. The company will be split into several pieces over the next 24 months. Free cash flow and earnings are growing at 10 to 15%. He expects dividend increases while the company goes through its restructuring. The breakup value of the company would give a 25% gain and the company has stated that it is headed in that direction. The company has been under pressure on the commodity chemical side and the agriculture side. There had been disappointment, though recent earnings were strong and caused a bit of a recovery. In addition, institutional investors are shying away from the company because, in general, they are shying away from owning conglomerates.

He likes the sector. This is a very broad-based materials name, with exposure to chemicals, agriculture, and so on. Some parts of their business are working well now, others not so much. For example, its coating business depends on the success of the auto industry, which might be pulling back. That’s normal for a business that is this broad. In general, materials is a late-stage performer and he has invested in a basket of stocks in this sector. DowDuPont recently reported a good quarter. However, the company’s future plans concern him. The company merged in order to reorganize and align its businesses and then split into three separate companies. He has never seen this intentional process of building to a 3-way split before. This is a multi-year strategy that is working very well so far. It has good global exposure. So he is comfortable with it, but he prefers to go to a broader basket of companies in this late stage rather than buying one and suffering the idiosyncratic risk. But if you were going to pick just one company, this one is broad and could make sense. (Analysts’ price target is $80.78)

He likes the basic material space. Commodities move higher on the later stages of the cycle. This company is not really attractive from the valuation point of view trading at 15 times earning and 8% growth rate.

He likes the company and thinks price could be in a lull presently.  They are trying to better align the organization and take advantage of creating two distinct entities.  They are caught between now and there is execution risk that this separation could take two years.  The stock is still making lower lows and lower highs.  Keep it on the radar for about 12-18 months. 

(A Top Pick Feb 14/17. Up 6%.) He bought this because it was going through this reorganization. They are putting the 2 companies together and then they are going to break them up into 3 pieces. With relatively low feed-cost stocks and an improving economy, the opportunity to grow is there.