E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD)

Dupont for those who aren't familiar. I'm wearing down on this blog post and if you've made it this far congratulations. Dupont has been around for 206 years, is involved in a lot of diverse things, the most exciting of which right now is agriculture. The most important thing I personally use from Dupont is Kevlar. No, I'm no a cop or a marine, although Kevlar has helped save likely countless lives in the streets and on the battlefield. I am, however, a fire performer. See that fire flower that is my avatar icon? The way you make a set of fire poi is by attaching a leather handle to a chain, and at the other end of the chain you attack a wick made of - you guessed it - kevlar. You dip the kevlar wick in a flammable fuel (like kerosine), light it, and presto, you have a set of fire poi to dance with. Now I'm not recommending you go out and do this, but I am recommending Dupont based on their ability to innovate and create products like kevlar, that can be used for such diverse purposes from body armor protection to fire performance. And just to let everyone know I'm safe with not just my investments but also my body, Dupont also makes a fiber called Nomex. I wear Nomex arm-sleeves to protect my arms when I do my fire performance. What exactly is Nomex? It's a flame-resistant fiber, and if you've ever watched a Nascar, IRL, or NHRA (hot rod) race, you have seen drivers wearing Nomex, or a firefighter, or... the list goes on.

I work there. We are a great solid dividend producing, reliably steady company but heavily involved in serving the new housing market. Forget housing starts, we track new housing building permit applications. For sizable subdivisions, this precedes starts by a year. Building permits are at the lowest point we have seen in 20 years. The recovery (buying stuff to build houses) is at least 2 years away and probably 3. Damn, why on earth did my management decide to sell Conoco a few years ago?

Chosen to be a part of the High Yield Portfolio strategy. Originally created by Fool UK's Stephen Bland (TMFPyad) in November 2000, the High-Yield Portfolio (HYP) strategy invests in a diversified group of 15 blue chip dividend-paying stocks with strong dividend cover, relatively low debt, and a history of increasing dividend payouts. The holding period is theoretically forever -- unless a stock is bought out or cuts its dividend.

Sound crazy? Well, the point of the portfolio is not necessarily for capital gains (although that's certainly a bonus), but to produce increasing amounts of annual dividend income. Daily price fluctuations matter not -- it's the income that matters -- so it removes emotional trading from the picture entirely. Doubters should note that the original UK HYP from November 2000 returned 68% through December 2007 (while the FTSE 100 lost 8%). What's more, the portfolio income payout increased 29% over that seven year period, from 3,451 pounds to 4,462 pounds per year.

This stock is a solid long term hold in the large cap universe. After recent pullback, I am a buyer at this price. Recent development and introduction of new products will help this company in the future.

Dividend was increased 11% in December - making it 3.6% yield at this price. Expectations are continued increases in the dividend in future years.

High-quality, High-Value company doing Share repurchases for the right reasons (cheap stock price). What could be better? This ain't a quick double, but should beat the overall market over time, especially in a downturn.

After just completing it business transformation, DD is poised to challenge old share price highs. Income growth in the TTM is over 600%. P/E is 18 and it pays a 3.2% Div yield. Target is $52.

slow but sure

DuPont (DP) is successfully overcoming hurdles it was facing in past and is on path of success in years to come. The company’s innovative and commercialized new products are performing well. In fiscal 2006, products less than five years old contributed over one-third of total revenues and thus helping DP to maintain pricing power which it’s enjoying since three years. Moreover diversified geographic spread enables it to offset economic downturns in some of it markets.

In fiscal 2006, softness in the North American housing and automotive markets was more than offset by double-digit growth in emerging markets with 22% and 39% growth in fourth-quarter sales in China and Eastern Europe respectively. For the same period, DP's revenues improved by 2% to $28.98 billion reflecting an increase in sales from the Coatings & Color Technologies segment, higher sales from Electronic & communication Technologies Segments and increased other income.

DP's plan to reduce fixed costs by $1 billion by the end of 2008 is advancing ahead of schedule, as evident in fiscal 2006, fixed costs as a percentage of sales fell to 42.5% from 44.5% in previous year. Thus it will help company to reduce the company's overall operating leverage and make it less vulnerable from negative effects of expected economic downturn.

DP has realized that new technology in seeds requires a more dedicated and sophisticated sales force and thus it is revamping its agriculture sales structure. Now there will be 35 agronomists to support sales managers and it will work directly with 1,600 retailers and use distributors for logistical support only.

Oil and natural gas prices are likely to moderate in the second half of fiscal 2007, which will reaccelerate growth and margins of commodity and specialty chemical firms like DP. Thus considering all factors DP is expected to grow at a reasonable rate to will strengthen its position in world market.

Jon Markman says that their share of the genetically modified seed business is growing. They should also gain from a weakening dollar, and they seem to be working hard at getting rid of their non-core businesses. And the analysts don't seem to have paind any attention to this yet.

Good solid company

v

Attractive valuation. As housing market recovers, people will need more paint to get them ready to sell. Company is well positioned in terms of diversity with regard to its business lines, thus softening the correlation to the housing and making the stock a more conservative bullish strategy on recovery in that market. Revenue increasing nicely again, nice margins and return on capital.

Solar, Agriculture, Insulation, Biofuel four very in demand industries for years to come.

VL

climb and as the U.S. economy, particularly the housing and auto markets, slow. (For example, DuPont is one of the largest suppliers of auto paint in the world.) But for your money, you get a piece of DuPont's big agriculture business just as it's set to reverse a decade-long slide in market share

It's just fun to have a stock pick called double D's, I feel bad for saying PLA is going nowhere, so this is my pick to make up for that. Never hurts that they are diversified and foreign.

Biofuel play will (eventually) pay off.

I feel that this stock, being related to the agricultural "food basket of the world" will continue to grow as the need for more and better food crops to feed the world population continues to rise as the previously undeveloped countries continually have a need for new and better food supplies to feed their growing populations. This is evident in the United States as our food prices soar in response to the rising cost of fuel which in turn, impacts our agricultural community in a double whammy both in the field and in the transport of the crop commodity to the market. This being said, the stock should outperform the market for at least the next few months in the short run.

DD owns Pioneer Hybrids now and they were a good company long before then.