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Text: I will provide comments on the strong start that we had to 2021, including the advancement of a number of strategic priorities to make DuPont a premier multi-industrial company, equipped for growth and value creation.
The health and well-being of our people remains our top priority.
The principles and protocols we've implemented globally and locally to help to protect our people and ensure business continuity as countries face multiple waves of infection and lockdowns.
As an innovation-led company, we believe in science and we're encouraging all employees to get vaccinated.
And where possible, we're working with public health authorities to facilitate access and distribution.
Starting on Slide 2, I will note that one of our priorities for generating value is consistent operating performance and financial results.
Lori will take you through the details in a moment.
But I'd like to highlight the 7% organic revenue growth that we reported, reflecting broad and strong demand in key markets such as semiconductors, smartphones, water, residential construction and automotive.
This revenue growth, along with continued cost discipline, led to strong operating leverage and EBITDA margin expansion in the quarter.
Our first-quarter financial results reflect the agility of our teams to navigate through a challenging environment while facing escalating raw material and logistics costs, as well as global supply constraints of key raw materials, most notably in our M&M segment.
With strong order trend continuing and confidence in our team's ability to navigate the supply chain challenges, we are raising our full-year guidance for net sales, operating EBITDA and adjusted EPS.
I will provide more details regarding this increase shortly.
In addition to our financial results, we advanced a number of our strategic priorities during the quarter.
First, as previously announced, we completed the merger of our nutrition and biosciences business with IFF, creating an industry-leading company in the food and beverage, home and personal care and health and wellness markets.
As you know, this transaction also unlocks significant value for DuPont and our shareholders.
As part of the transaction, we received 7.3 billion cash from IFF and retired slightly more than 197 million coupon shares, or about 27% of our outstanding shares at the time with no cash outlay.
We strengthened our balance sheet during the quarter by paying down our $3 billion term loan, and we will redeem $2 billion of our long-term debt later this month.
As a reminder, our next debt maturity will not be due until the fourth quarter of 2023.
In line with our balanced approach, we returned about 660 million of capital to shareholders during the first quarter through share repurchases and dividends.
Under our existing share buyback program, we executed 500 million in share repurchases during the first quarter.
As a reminder, we have about 500 million of repurchase authorization remaining under that program, which we intend to utilize by June 1 of this year.
Earlier this quarter, we also announced that our board of directors authorized a new 1.5 billion share buyback program, which expires on June 30, 2022.
We plan to be opportunistic under the new program as we move throughout the year.
With respect to dividends, we returned about 160 million in cash to shareholders during the quarter.
As we previously mentioned, going forward, we will target a payout ratio between 35 and 45%.
And we intend to work with our board to increase our dividend annually as we grow our earnings.
In March, we announced a definitive agreement to acquire Laird Performance Materials for $2.3 billion.
When completed, a planned acquisition of Laird advances DuPont's strategy of growing as a global innovation leader and strengthens our leadership position in advanced electronic materials.
The Laird business will complement our interconnect solutions business within E&I, and it will add critical capabilities and market-leading offerings in thermal management and electromagnetic shielding, which are essential to emerging electronic applications.
Our E&I team, along with our customers, are excited for this opportunity.
We recently received regulatory approval for the transaction in Germany and Brazil and cleared HSR in the U.S. last month.
As previously indicated, we expect the transaction will close in the third quarter of this year.
Finally, we announced previously that we have signed definitive agreements to sell our Biomaterials, Clean Technologies and Solamet businesses.
We anticipate receiving more than 900 million in gross proceeds from those divestitures, and we expect those transactions to close in the second half of this year.
Before turning it over to Lori to go through the details of the first quarter, I'd like to take a moment to provide some context regarding what we saw during the quarter in our key end markets that we serve.
Combined, the electronics and automotive markets account for nearly half of our revenues.
Electronics continues to perform very well, and auto is recovering nicely from its 2020 lows.
Within electronics, demand continues to be broad-based as the ramp-up of advanced technology nodes and a need for more memory to servers and data centers has accelerated.
The server market, which is a large consumer of semiconductor chips and circuit board chemistries, continues to show strength and is expected to remain robust as Internet network traffic continues to grow.
Furthermore, the deployment of 5G infrastructure by leading telecom companies in preparation for the next generation of ultra high-speed data transmission should help sustain demand for premium smartphones, which is further enhanced by our favorable content play.
With respect to the automotive end market, demand is well above the lows of 2020 but not yet back to 2019 levels, which sold 22.9 million vehicles produced in the first quarter and nearly 90 million units for the year.
The lack of stable supply of critical components, mainly semiconductors, impacted the ability of the auto OEMs to produce more vehicles and rebuild inventories during the quarter.
Even where we participate in the value chain within M&M, I think it's important to note that our first quarter engineering polymers volumes were not materially affected by the chip shortages as our demand from the Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers was not lessened as a result of the chip shortage.
However, our ability to supply customers was affected by supply constraints of key raw materials, predominantly in our nylon and polyester product lines.
This supply situation is gradually improving while we anticipate several critical products will continue to constrain our production through the end of the second quarter.
We expect that annual sales as a result of raw material constraints will be captured in the second half of the year.
Additionally, we believe that the automotive market will remain strong for the balance of the year as OEMs look to meet robust demand, as well as replenish global inventories, which are currently below historical averages.
Moving on to the water and construction end markets.
Collectively, these two markets account for approximately 20% of our total company sales.
Versus first quarter of 2019, demand for advanced water filtration and purification has strengthened, driven by solid growth in Asia Pacific.
Strength in residential and commercial water markets, as well as industrial and desalination segments has shown growth.
For construction, North America residential and do-it-yourself markets are up versus first quarter 2019.
And while demand within the commercial construction segment has improved from the lows experienced in 2020, it is not back to 2019 levels.
Lastly, demand within our industrial end markets versus 2019 levels is mixed.
Within the electrical infrastructure and Tyvek protective garment markets, demand is at or above 2019 levels.
However, demand in end markets such as aerospace and oil and gas is still below 2019 levels, but it's improved since the lows of the second and third quarter of last year.
Sequentially, our sales in the aero and oil and gas were up over 40%.
Our diversified portfolio of products and technologies will serve us as the global economy continues to recover from the pandemic.
We are continuing to invest at competitive levels in R&D and innovation to further solidify our strong market positions and maintain our position as the partner of choice for our customers in 2021 and beyond.
Let me cover our first-quarter financial results on Slide 4.
Net sales of 4 billion were up 8% versus the first quarter of 2020, up 7% on an organic basis.
Overall sales growth was driven by strong volume, up 7% versus first quarter of last year, with volume increases in all three reporting segments.
Currency provided a 3% tailwind in the quarter led by the euro.
Portfolio was a 2% headwind, primarily due to the sale of the trichlorosilane business last year.
Sales were up in all three segments, with E&I, M&M and W&P reflecting organic growth of 14%, 8% and 1%, respectively.
On a regional basis, organic sales were up 20% in Asia Pacific, our largest region from a sales perspective, with strong results in all three reporting segments.
Partially offsetting gains in Asia Pacific were organic sales decline in the U.S. and Canada and EMEA of 4 and 2%, respectively.
and Canada and EMEA were driven by softness for aramid fibers, specifically continued softness in aerospace and timing delays in defense, as well as auto builds, which were down in these regions.
I'll provide more color on our segment top line results on the next slide.
From an earnings perspective, we delivered operating EBITDA of 1.05 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $0.91 per share, up 15 and 90%, respectively.
Volume gains, as well as benefit from prior-year cost initiatives and currency drove 160 basis points of operating EBITDA margin expansion and 1.9 times operating leverage.
Incremental margins for the quarter were 46%.
I will walk you through the earnings per share later call in a moment.
Our total company gross margin for the quarter was 36.8%, flat on a year-over-year basis.
Gross margin improvement in E&I and M&M on higher volume and manufacturing productivity was offset by a margin decline in W&P, resulting from higher unit rates versus the prior year, driven primarily by lower production volumes of aramid fibers.
Gross margin expanded about 280 basis points sequentially, with margin improvement in all three segments.
From a segment perspective, E&I delivered operating EBITDA margin of 33.5% and 420 basis points of margin expansion versus the year-ago period on strong volume growth and a onetime discrete gain related to an asset sale.
Excluding the benefit of the asset sale, operating EBITDA margin would have been 31.7%, a year-over-year improvement of 240 basis points.
M&M delivered operating EBITDA margins of 22.9% and 320 basis points of margin expansion versus the year ago period on higher volumes and savings from productivity actions.
In W&P, operating EBITDA was flat versus the year ago period as sales gains and cost productivity actions were offset by higher manufacturing costs, primarily higher unit rates, driven by lower production of aramid fibers and increased supply chain costs.
For the quarter, cash flow from operating activities and free cash flow were 378 million and 95 million, respectively.
These amounts include one month of cash flow from our N&B business compared to three months of N&B cash burn in the prior year.
In addition, cash flow and free cash flow conversion was negatively impacted by a working capital headwind of about 300 million, led by higher accounts receivable balances, which were up in line with sales.
For the year, we continue to target free cash flow conversion of greater than 90%.
Slide 5 provides more details on the year-over-year changes in net sales.
Leading the way for the quarter was E&I with 15% volume growth, which had a record quarter.
Volume gains were led by double-digit growth on robust demand for semiconductors across Asia.
High fabrication utilization rates, driven by demand for new technologies and advanced nodes, along with the ongoing shift in digital transformation drove strong top line growth.
In addition, share gains from recent wins for CMP slurry and lithography materials improved results.
In interconnect solutions, double-digit growth was driven by higher material content in premium next-generation smartphones partially resulting from timing shifts that select OEM demand shifted earlier in the year this year, along with broader printed circuit board market recovery.
Within industrial solutions, double-digit volume gains in display materials due to new time launches more than offset continued weakness in aerospace.
The end markets within W&P were generally consistent with our expectations.
Sales gains were led by water solutions with double-digit volume growth, reflecting strong demand for our reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration technology, led by Asia.
Shelter solutions had low single-digit organic growth versus the year ago period, reflecting high single-digit organic growth in residential construction and retail channels for do-it-yourself application, offset partially by softness in commercial construction market.
Within safety solutions, pricing gains, favorable currency and strengthening demand for aramid fibers in industrial and automotive end market was more than offset by continued weakness in aerospace and year-over-year volume declines for Tyvek.
Lower Tyvek production volumes were a result of higher planned downtime in the quarter.
Also contributing to strong first-quarter top line growth was continued recovery of the global automotive market, which represents about 60% of our M&M segment from an end market perspective.
The most recent estimate of 1Q global auto builds were about 20.3 million units toward the quarter, up approximately 14% versus the first quarter of last year.
As a result, volume in our performance resins business was up over 20% versus the year-ago period.
Another bright spot in M&M was improved demand for microcircuit materials, which we aligned to the M&M segment earlier this year.
These specialized materials, along with adhesive growth, helped drive over 20% organic growth in advanced solutions growth in the year ago period.
Demand in our engineering polymers business was strong.
However, global supply constraints for key raw materials resulted in low single-digit volume decline.
Our teams are experienced in navigating trading challenges and have worked diligently with our customers and suppliers to help mitigate the impact incurred as a result.
Additionally, we expect to recover volume lost in the quarter due to these disruptions and raw material constraints as part of this unit.
Turning to Slide 6.
I mentioned that adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of $0.91 was up 90% versus the prior year.
The largest driver of our year-over-year growth was a significantly lower share count, mainly resulting from the N&B exchange offer.
The lower share count provided a $0.16 benefit versus the prior year.
Excluding the lower share count, adjusted earnings per share growth was still significant, up 56% versus the prior year.
Higher segment earnings provided a $0.13 tailwind in the quarter versus the prior year, along with benefits this year with a lower base tax rate and reduced interest expense.
Our base tax rate for the quarter of 19.4% was lower than forecasted as a result of a few discrete tax benefits in the quarter.
Our tax rate in the quarter was significantly lower than last year, resulting from the absence of certain discrete tax headwinds incurred in the prior year.
For the full-year 2021, we now expect our base tax rate to be in the range of 21 to 22%, down slightly from the 21 to 23% that we previously estimated at the beginning of the year.
Turning to Slide 7.
I will provide some commentary on our balance sheet and cash position.
I mentioned earlier that net working capital provided headwinds in free cash flow in the quarter.
However, I would like to point out that net working capital productivity gains of about 600 million that we have made in the first quarter of last year, decreasing net working capital for about 3.5 billion at March 2020 to 2.9 billion at March of 2021.
Both of these were driving down past due receivables and inventory.
From a debt perspective, we have stated that we are committed to maintaining our current strong investment-grade credit profile.
We started the year with $15.6 billion in current debt.
And as Ed mentioned, we paid down our $3 billion term loan in February, and we will pay down $2 billion of debt later this month.
Moving on to cash.
Our cash generated from operations last year put us in a strong cash position coming into this year, and that balance grew with a $7.3 billion special cash payment from the transaction with IFF.
In addition, we expect to receive over 900 million in gross proceeds this year from the previously announced sale of the non-core businesses.
Our current deployment plan for 2021 includes a balanced capital allocation approach.
Along with our plan for internal investment this year, we plan to grow through targeted M&A in areas of secular growth and will fund the $2.3 billion planned acquisition of Laird performance materials with cash on hand.
We intend to continue to return cash to shareholders.
Along with our dividend policy, we completed 500 million of share repurchases in the first quarter at an average price of about $73 per share and will remain opportunistic with our remaining share repurchase authorization throughout the rest of the year.
On a go-forward basis, our target run and maintain cash balance is about $1.5 billion.
And from a leverage perspective, our net debt-to-EBITDA target remains at 2.75 times.
Let me close with our financial outlook on Slide 8, which includes our view of the second quarter and full-year 2021.
We are raising our full-year guidance range for net sales, operating EBITDA and adjusted EPS.
At the midpoint of the range provided, we now expect net sales for the year to be about $15.8 billion, which reflects year-over-year growth of 10%, up from our previous estimate of 8% growth.
We expect to improve leverage and now expect operating EBITDA for the year to be about 4.03 billion, at the midpoint of the range provided, a year-over-year increase of 17%.
These revised estimates reflect our solid start to the year and confidence in our team's ability to continue to navigate global supply key challenges.
We are also raising our adjusted earnings per share range for the full year by $0.30 per share and now expect adjusted earnings per share of $3.67 per share, at the midpoint of the range provided.
In addition to the strong operating performance of our businesses, the share repurchases we are completing under our existing programs and the narrowing of our estimated tax range [Inaudible] while contributing to the revised [Inaudible].
For the second-quarter 2021, we expect net sales to be about 3.975 billion, and we expect the operating EBITDA to be about $1 billion, both at the midpoints of the ranges provided and both well above results in the second quarter last year.
At the midpoint of the range provided, we expect adjusted earnings per share for the second quarter of 2021 of $0.94 per share, which now reflects the full reduction in shares resulting from the N&B exchange offer and our weighted average shares.
[Operator Instructions] Operator, please provide the Q&A instructions.

user
qtrly earnings per share from continuing operations $0.89; qtrly adjusted earnings per share $0.91.
qtrly net sales $3.98 billion versus $3.67 billion.
raises full year 2021 guidance for net sales, operating ebitda and adjusted eps.
on a regional basis, organic sales growth in quarter was led by asia pacific more than offsetting declines in us & canada and emea.
electronics & industrial reported a record quarter with net sales of $1.3 billion, up 17%.
expect similar top-line trends continuing from q1 into q2 coupled with slight escalation in raw materials and logistics costs.

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