Al Root

After a decade of transactions, DuPont de Nemours could "enter the rarified air of growth compounder," according to one Wall Street analyst.

Compounder is a special category of stocks on Wall Street that includes the likes of Berkshire Hathaway and Danaher. It refers to companies that continue to increase sales and earnings at above-market rates. Typically a result of a combination of prudent management and smart bolt-on acquisitions, it is usually a recipe for years of solid share gains.

That's what the new DuPont is shooting for, wrote Deutsche Bank analyst David Begleiter on Tuesday.

"We are reiterating our Buy rating on DuPont following the spin-off of the company's Electronics business, Qnity, on November 1," he said. "The spin-off of Qnity marks the end of a 10-year journey for DuPont that began with the December 2015 announcement of a merger of equals with Dow Chemical."

Qnity serves the semiconductor industry. DuPont, today, serves the water and industrial markets.

So far, wealth creation has been elusive. The companies that have emerged from DuPont, DowDuPont, and Dow, Inc. over the past decade-plus include Chemours, Corteva, Qnity, and, of course, the current iterations of Dow and DuPont.

The market value of those five is roughly $94 billion. DowDuPont had a market value closer to $150 billion in 2019, ahead of the Dow-DuPont split.

The stock market, however, doesn't care all that much about what happened years ago. It is forward-looking.

Begleiter sees better days ahead. "What is left of DuPont is a company of modest size....though of high quality...with solid growth....strong free cash flow potential...and compelling valuation," he wrote.

DuPont trades for about 11 times his estimate of 2026 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda. Industry peers trade for about 15.5 times. Earnings per share should grow at 8% to 10% per year.

His price target is $46 a share, up about 20% from recent levels. The average analyst price target for DuPont stock is about $47. And 81% of analysts covering the stock rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%.

Maybe the next few years are DuPont's time to shine.

DuPont stock was down 2% in early trading at $37.72 on Tuesday, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were off about 0.2%.

Coming into Tuesday trading, DuPont stock, adjusted for the Qnity spin, was up about 21% year to date.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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November 25, 2025 09:50 ET (14:50 GMT)

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