DuPont de Nemours (NYSE:DD) reported first-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company's first-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
Benzinga APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ to learn more.
View the webcast at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/189504581
Summary
DuPont de Nemours exceeded its Q1 2026 guidance with 2% organic sales growth, 130 basis points of margin expansion, and double-digit adjusted EPS growth.
The company raised its full-year 2026 financial guidance and announced a $275 million accelerated share repurchase as part of its capital allocation strategy.
DuPont de Nemours completed the divestiture of the aramids business and issued its 2026 sustainability report, highlighting new 2035 sustainability goals.
Operational highlights include strong safety performance, employee engagement, and advancements in digital and AI capabilities to enhance innovation and commercial execution.
Healthcare and Water Technologies saw 6% net sales growth, while Diversified Industrials experienced 3% growth, supported by favorable mix and productivity improvements.
Management expressed confidence in navigating macro and geopolitical challenges with continued focus on productivity and operational excellence.
Full Transcript
Bailey (Operator)
Thank you for standing by. My name is Bailey and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Dewpoint first quarter 2026 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press Star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question again, press Star and one I would now like to turn the call over to Anne Giancarlo, VP of Investor Relations. You may begin.
Anne Giancarlo (VP of Investor Relations)
Good morning and thank you for joining us for DuPont de Nemours's first quarter 2026 financial results conference call. Joining me today are Laurie Koch, Chief Executive Officer and Antonella Franzen, Chief Financial Officer. We have prepared slides to supplement our remarks which are posted on DuPont de Nemours's website under the Investor Relations tab and through the webcast link. Please read the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the slides. During this call we will make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations or predictions about the future. Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risks and uncertainties, our actual performance and results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Our Form 10-K as updated by our current and periodic reports, includes detailed discussions of principal risks and uncertainties which may cause such differences. Unless otherwise specified, all historical financial measures presented today are on a continuing operations basis and exclude significant items. We will also refer to other non GAAP measures. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is included in our press release and presentation materials and has been posted to DuPont de Nemours's investor relations website. I'll now turn the call over to Lori who will begin on slide three.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Good morning and thanks everyone for joining our call. Earlier today we reported our first quarter financial results which exceeded our previously communicated guidance. Through disciplined commercial and operational execution, we delivered organic sales growth of 2%, 130 basis points of pro forma margin expansion and double digit adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) growth. Free cash flow generation and conversion were solid in the quarter. As a result of our first quarter performance along with price increases due to the Middle East conflict, we are raising our full year 2026 financial guidance. Antonella will provide further details shortly. We also announced that we expect to launch a $275 million accelerated share repurchase under our existing program. A clear example of how we continue to advance our strategic priority of driving disciplined capital allocation by returning cash to shareholders. On the next slide I will cover the progress we are making on driving growth and continuous improvement we completed the previously announced divestiture of the Aramids business on April 1. We are confident in our ability to continue to drive growth and opportunity for the employees and customers of the combined businesses. We also recently issued our 2026 sustainability report and announced our new 2035 sustainability goals. A progress we made in 2025 highlights the power of our innovation engine, creating sustainably advanced solutions that help our customers succeed. We continue to reduce our environmental footprint and increase the use of renewable energy sources across our operations while maintaining a strong focus on execution and discipline, Safety and culture continue to differentiate DuPont with record safety, performance and high employee engagement, reinforcing the connection between what we do every day and the value we create for our customers. Our 2035 Sustainability Goals reinforce our commitment to delivering value by embedding sustainability directly into our business strategy. These goals focus on three impact areas: sustainable innovation, resilient operations and people, partners and communities. They are designed to drive growth through innovation, operational excellence and accountability across our value chain while also advancing progress in areas such as climate, action, circularity, safety and responsible sourcing. Moving to slide 4 we continue to advance our strategic priorities and are seeing direct impacts from the implementation of our business system. We strengthen our performance based culture with a clear emphasis on growth and continuous improvement reinforced by the launch of our refresh core values. This is enabling greater consistency across the businesses as we drive excellence in innovation, commercial execution and operations. Starting with innovation, it remains at the core of our value proposition. Our 2025 Vitality Index was 35% above the benchmark we previously outlined, reflecting the strength and relevance of our product portfolio. During the quarter, we delivered a steady cadence of new product introductions and customer wins across healthcare, water and diversified industrial end markets. Recent launches include upgraded FilmTech nanofiltration elements designed to help municipalities and drinking water utilities produce high quality water with lower energy consumption and reduced operating costs. These innovations are being enabled not only by strong R&D execution but but also by continuing investments in digital and AI capabilities. Last week we announced that we are collaborating with an AI-driven platform, an AI driven platform for end to end product and application development focused on accelerating development, improving cycle time and sharpening how we translate ideas into differentiated solutions for customers. This collaboration streamlines and accelerates the work we have been doing on connected lab infrastructure and digital innovation. From a commercial standpoint, we are making steady progress in demand generation and pipeline discipline across the businesses. We are advancing targeted sales plays that bring together our technologies and application expertise to address specific end markets where we see attractive growth and differentiated value. We continue to standardize how opportunities are identified, reviewed and advanced, supported by a clear cadence, better data quality and stronger collaboration between commercial, technical and operations teams. These efforts are driving better visibility, improved conversion and stronger alignment between our commercial team and customers highest value needs Improving the quality and durability of our Pipeline on operational excellence, our teams remain intensely focused on the fundamentals safety, quality, delivery, inventory and productivity. During the quarter, we delivered meaningful improvements in asset reliability and equipment effectiveness across our key facilities which supported better on time delivery and stronger operational throughput. At the same time, we continue to drive productivity through focused maintenance and reliability initiatives, lean execution and Kaizen Activity across our site I am personally excited as we recently kicked off our annual CEO Kaizen event in which myself and the executive leadership team will each participate in events focused on strengthening our value creation processes across the company. We are also advancing how we operate by pairing process discipline with digital and AI capabilities. Over the last several quarters we have expanded the use of data enabled tools to improve maintenance planning, accelerate defect detection and optimize asset performance. These capabilities are allowing our team to convert operational data into actionable insights faster, improving reliability, reducing variability and reinforcing safe operations, all while delivering costs and and productivity benefits. Importantly, this operational rigor positions us well as we navigate a dynamic external environment. While we are mindful of potential macro and geopolitical headwinds, our focus on productivity, automation and structural improvement is creating resilience in the businesses. We are building a strong pipeline of content and improvement projects for the balance of the year aimed at sustaining momentum in growth and productivity. Our first quarter results demonstrate that we are off to a great start. Our April sales were in line with our expectations and we continue to see strong order growth trends across the majority of our businesses. Our teams continue to focus on driving growth and operational discipline and our strategic priorities position us well for long term value creation. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Antonella to cover the financials and outlook in more detail.
Antonella Franzen (Chief Financial Officer)
Thanks Lori and good morning everyone. The first quarter marked a strong operational start to the year with results exceeding our financial guidance. Favorable top line mix and effective productivity actions drove strong operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) performance and meaningful margin expansion in the quarter. Throughout today's call, I will provide comments on our results against our prior year reported financials as well as on a pro forma basis which adjusts for our post separation corporate cost, interest, expense and income tax rate. This is consistent with the methodology and financial metrics that we Provided at our 2025 Investor Day beginning with our first quarter financial highlights on slide 5, net sales of 1.7 billion were up 4% versus the year ago period on 2% organic sales growth and a 2% benefit from currency. Organic sales growth was led by strength in healthcare and aerospace, partially offset by continued softness in construction markets and logistics disruptions due to the conflict in the Middle East. These disruptions primarily impacted sales in our water business in the quarter. From a segment view, during the quarter organic sales grew 3% in healthcare and water technologies with organic sales growth about flat in diversified industrials. First quarter operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) of 414 million increased 15% versus the year ago period on organic sales growth, favorable mix and productivity. This resulted in operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) margin of 24.6% in the quarter, an increase of 230 basis points year over year. On a pro forma basis, operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) increased 10% with margins expanding 130 basis points year over year. Turning to cash flow, we delivered transaction adjusted free cash flow of 147 million and related conversion of 65%, a solid start to the year. Turning to Slide 6 on a reported basis, adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) for the quarter of $0.55 increased 53% year over year. On a pro forma basis, adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) for The quarter was up 20% versus the year ago period. The increase was primarily driven by higher segment earnings of $0.06 with an additional $0.03 benefit coming from a lower tax rate, share count and exchange gains and losses. Turning to Slide 7 Healthcare and Water Technologies first quarter net sales of 806 million were up 6% versus the year ago period on 3% organic growth and a 3% benefit from currency. For the first quarter. Health care sales were up high single digits percent on an organic basis versus the year ago period. Organic growth was broad based led by continued strength in medical, packaging and biopharma. Water sales were down low to mid single digits percent on an organic basis as strength in industrial, water and microelectronics markets were more than offset by logistics disruptions in the Middle East. Operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) for the segment during the quarter of 244 million was up 9% versus the year ago period on organic growth, favorable mix and productivity gains. This resulted in operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) margin of 30.3% in the quarter, an increase of 110 basis points year over year. Turning to diversified industrials on slide 8, first quarter net sales of 875 million increased 3% versus the year ago period on a 3% benefit from currency. Organic sales growth was about flat in the quarter. At the line of business level, organic sales for building technologies were down low single digits percent on continued weakness in construction markets, industrial technologies organic sales were up low single digits percent as continued strength in aerospace and growth in automotive were partially offset by declines in the printing and packaging businesses. Operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) for diversified industrials of 200 million was up 8% versus the year ago period on favorable mix and productivity. Operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) margin during the quarter was 22.9% expanding 110 basis points versus the year ago period. Turning to slide 9 we are raising our full year 2026 financial guidance given our strong start to the year as well as now including the interest income benefit from the aromage transaction. For the second quarter we estimate net sales of about 1.8 billion, operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) of about 430 million and adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $0.59 per share. Our second quarter net sales guidance assumes about 3% organic growth year over year. Currency is expected to be a slight tailwind in the quarter. For the healthcare and water segment we expect second quarter organic sales growth in the mid single digits percent range led by strength in medical, device, biopharma and industrial water markets. For the diversified industrial segment we expect second quarter organic sales growth in the low single digits percent range on continued strength in aerospace and growth in printing and packaging partially offset by continued softness in construction markets. For the first half, our estimated net sales of about 3.5 billion assumes growth of about 4% year over year. This translates into operating ebitda of about 844 million a year over year increase of about 8% on a reported basis and 7% on a pro forma basis, resulting in strong operating leverage and an incremental margin greater than 40%. Our first half net sales and operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) guidance both represent approximately 48% of our total expected full year results at the midpoint. This is in line with our historical sales and earnings cadence for the full year 2026. At the midpoint we now expect net sales of about 7.185 billion, a net increase of 80 million versus our prior guide. Our full year net sales guidance now assumes about 4% organic growth, including about 1% from pricing actions taken to fully offset higher input costs due to the Middle east conflict. A stronger US Dollar has also reduced our expected full year currency benefit to less than 1%. Operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) at the midpoint is now expected to be about 1.745 billion, primarily reflecting our stronger first quarter results partially offset by currency headwinds. Our adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) Range is now expected to be $2.35 to $2.40 per share, a 10 cent increase versus our prior guidance. Our Earnings Per Share (EPS) guidance now includes benefits from higher interest income due to the aromage transaction as well as a lower tax rate which we now expect to be in the 24 to 25% range. At the midpoint, our adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) is about a 40% increase on a reported basis and a 15% increase on a pro forma basis. With that, we are pleased to take your questions. And let me turn it back to the operator to open the Q and A.
OPERATOR
Thank you so much. At this time I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. Please limit your questions to one initial and one follow up. Your first question comes from the line of Scott Davis with Melius Research. Your line is open.
Scott Davis (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good morning everybody. Laurie, Antonella. Good morning, Scott. Congrats on second kind of clean quarter in a row. Numbers look pretty good overall. But a couple big picture questions. I mean you guys have been implementing 80, 20. Where are we in that process and what kind of impact does that have on your top line?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, so we are well into the process within the diversified industrials portfolio. So we selected four businesses to start and we're about two thirds through the initial study. We didn't have any impact in the full year guide on either top line or margin with respect to any implementation. But we would expect over time to see nice margin appreciation with minimal top line impact as we as we look to improve the margin profile of the businesses in scope.
Scott Davis (Equity Analyst)
Okay, fair enough. And then, well, I'm going to move on to stranded costs. Where are we with stranded costs in the quarter and for the year? Can't recall what you expected?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. So Scott, we had estimated Overall there's about 30 million of stranded costs which we committed to taking out within the first two years. So this year we'll have a nice start on that. So for the full year we'll have approximately like 10 million out. But from a run rate basis, you know, we'll be actually halfway there. So I would tell you we're right on cadence with where we expect to be and again we expect to have that out the first two years.
Scott Davis (Equity Analyst)
Okay, super helpful. Thank you. Appreciate it. Best of luck.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
John McNulty (Equity Analyst)
Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So wanted to dig into the into the water business a little bit more Especially just given some of the headwinds that you're seeing around the Middle east logistics. I guess a couple things on it. Can you, can you help us to think about the cost of navigating around some of these issues? Can you speak to also the customer base and if there's been any. I know there's been some desalinization impact in the region, I guess any of your customers that may not be coming up, say when things resume or the strait reopens, etc. Can you just help us to think about that?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. No, thank you. So in the quarter we had about 10 million of sales that weren't able to ship out of the Middle East. And so if you look at the results for water, we were down kind of low to mid single digits. If you isolate out that impact of 10 million, we would have been about flat to slightly down. Those materials have already shipped in April and so we continue to be on track with respect to our Q2 expectations. We didn't bake in a ton of disruption in Q2 with respect to the Middle east for the water business. We will on a full year basis continue to expect to be up mid single digits for water. It's about flat in the first half and then up in the second half, really driven by the timing of some large projects. And so large projects last year were the reverse of this year where they were stronger in the first half in the second half. But the underlying kind of consumables or recurring revenue businesses is growing nicely each quarter. With respect to the impact from our customer base, nothing as of this point. So there have been a little bit of disruption in our site in Saudi Arabia, but nothing that we can't navigate around. We do have some large projects in the second half in the Middle east around the desal, as you had mentioned right now, continue to expect them to be on track, but we'll have to watch as the broader situation evolves.
John McNulty (Equity Analyst)
Got it. Okay. No great results in a really tough, tough environment. I guess our second question would just be around the operational side. So the margin's clearly coming in really strong at this point, I guess. How much of that is mix versus some of the operational improvements you were speaking to. And if it's more leaning toward the latter, seems like you're, you know, if anything you're, you're solidly ahead of kind of the 150 to 200 basis point target that you would set for the next three years, I guess. Any, any thoughts or comments around that?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yes, the first quarter margins were very strong as you mentioned. And I would say we got a benefit of both actually. So mix was quite positive in the quarter that added about 50 basis points of margin. But I would also say net productivity was about another 70 basis points of margin. So again, really strong performance as we move forward. When you take a look at our full year guidance that we have, you know, margins continue to be strong and even when you go to the first half to the second half, there's another incremental 40 basis points of margin expansion. So to your point, I would say we are well on our way to our three year targets that we laid out at our investor day.
John McNulty (Equity Analyst)
Great. Thanks very much. For the caller,
OPERATOR
your next question comes from the line of Christopher Parkinson with Wolff Research. Your line is open.
Christopher Parkinson (Equity Analyst)
Great, thank you so much. Just as it relates to your healthcare exposure, obviously it seems like you're building a decent amount of momentum there. You dressed this at your analyst day, but I'd love to hear your updated thoughts. Just in terms of your balance between, you know, ppe, Biopharma Med device and some of the larger secular trends that's going on. Do you feel you're underexposed to anything within that, you know, within that spectrum, no pun intended. And is there anything that, you know, you think you'd like to add to the portfolio to really round it out? Thank you.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks. So our overall healthcare segment is about 2 billion in sales. So it's about a billion 2 of Tyvek sales and the remainder being the Spectrum Libio sales. And underneath Tyvek, about half of that is healthcare packaging and the rest primarily are the garment. So we like our exposure. As we sit today, we're nicely positioned in the med device profile between both spectrum on the CDMO side and then also on the Tyvek healthcare side with packaging needs. we've got an intent to continue to add to that piece of the portfolio. We've got a nice robust pipeline of assets that are both accretive to growth and also affordable. So there are assets that we would like to add, whether it's around the packaging side to have a broader packaging offering or whether on the CDMO side to continue to round out our sales into that space. You know, with respect to our appetite for M and A, we obviously closed the aramids transaction on April 1. So we got about a billion two of gross proceeds, about a billion one net proceeds. We'll continue to be balanced. We announced the $275 million ASR this morning and we also continue to be prudent so we're not going to lever up to do a deal we targeted two times leverage. We're a little below that today. So between the dry powder we have on the balance sheet as well as the remaining proceeds from the Aramids divestitures, it puts us in good position to also take advantage of potentially a accretive growth deal for us. And just as a quick follow up, just kind of a broader question on pricing in terms of the second quarter and also the second half environment. Just how are you thinking about this by segment in terms of what you're seeing in your inputs, transportation, logistics, costs, just obviously a lot of moving parts. I'd love to just hear your thoughts on strategy and how quickly you believe the organization can pivot. Thank you so much. Yep. So I would say the organization has done a great job pivoting as all this has started. So we already have surcharges as well as certain price increases in place to cover these incremental costs. So overall our expectation is around incremental costs of around 90 million, which we expect to fully cover from a top line perspective related to price and surcharges, as you would expect, it's starting in Q2, so we don't have a full run rate in the second quarter, but the second half will have a full run rate. Just to put a little bit of numbers around it, the second quarter is around 25 million or so of price on the top line to cover those costs.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Shigusa Kotoku with JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Shigusa Kotoku (Equity Analyst)
Hi, good morning. Congrats on a great quarter and a challenging operating environment.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you. Thank you.
Shigusa Kotoku (Equity Analyst)
So I just wanted to follow up on the price cost. So margins were really strong this quarter. If my math is correct, it looks like it's going to step down to around 24% in the second quarter. So if you could just help me understand the puts and takes around this. I think that you plan to institute price increases on April 1st. You had inventory. So I think meaningful raw material inflation is supposed to come be felt around maybe late 2Q, but any moving pieces here and what's impacting the softer margins in the second quarter. Thanks.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yep. So when you go from the first quarter to the second quarter, two things to keep in mind, price costs. To your point, we have pricing actions. You know, we'll have costs in the P and L. That's about a 30 basis point margin headwind and there's about 40 basis points of a margin headwind from Q1 to Q2 related to mix. So that's your Q1 to kind of Q2 walk relative to where we're at. But underlying performance continues to remain very strong when we talk about kind of what's embedded in in terms of the full year and the timing of that. So we did have some that started in April. I'll tell you majority of increases related to surcharges and price increases started on May 1 because there is some customer notification time that's needed relative to that. Obviously every product that we have in inventory has different terms associated with it. So keep in mind that these increase calls started and the latter end of the first quarter. So we definitely have some impact related to that in the second quarter. And as I mentioned, when you take the difference between price on the top line and cost on the bottom line, it's about 30 basis points of a headwind in the quarter.
Shigusa Kotoku (Equity Analyst)
Okay, great, thanks. So is my understanding correct that the majority of increases started in May versus April? So you haven't been seeing the order trends? I guess maybe put it differently after you started some price increases in April, how have ordered trends been compared to March?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yep. So as Laurie mentioned, I would say our order trends in April were actually, you know, we had very similar demand as we have been seeing and nice increases overall on a year over year basis are doing well.
Shigusa Kotoku (Equity Analyst)
Okay, amazing. Thanks so much.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of John Roberts with Mizuho. Your line is open.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks. I think you noted a strength in automotive during the quarter. Maybe you could comment a little bit on where that came from and how sustainable that might be since I think the auto outlook is not that rosy right now. Yeah, so we've got automotive, it's primarily within the industrial technologies line of business within Diversified. So we've got the predominant exposures within adhesive. We also have positions in Molykote and Multi Bay. So our outperformance amid a tough market as you had mentioned, is really based on the battery adhesive volumes that we have. So we've got about around the $300 million of sales that go into EVs. A piece of that is battery which is all incremental growth for us and it's growing nicely in the year well above kind of where the 20ish percent EV growth expectations are because it's new volume for us and new wind. So we continue to be positioned nicely and realize the pipeline has been building over the last couple years frankly as we got qualifications with the large OEMs and then just a clarification when you talk about desalination, is that municipal to you or is that industrial to you? It's primarily industrial. Primarily RO as well. It's the reverse osmosis component of water.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Josh Spector with ubs. Your line is open.
Josh Spector
Yeah, hi, good morning. I wanted to follow up on just the Middle east impacts around water. I think on some of the pre close conversations, you know, there is messaging that there are maybe $25 million a month in sales into and out of the Middle east and there was an inability to get material out, I guess while the strait is closed. Just based on your comments about not really baking in much in terms of the outlook, have you found alternative routes for those materials? I guess it sounds like you've mitigated that, but I'm not 100% clear. So can you expand on that a bit more?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. So let me size up our total exposure related to the Middle East. So in total it's around $300 million, about 4% of our top line. Half of that is related to sales into the Middle east and the other half is related to things that are sourced from the Middle East. So when you kind of do the math around that and one month of the straight being closed, that's kind of where the 25 million came from. As we mentioned earlier, there was about a $10 million impact to the top line in the first quarter related to product that we weren't able to get out. So that clearly tells you we have been able to mitigate quite a bit of that and obviously have taken that into consideration relative to our Q2 guide. But I guess if I take that then in those comments, it seems like half of it is still impacting maybe a little bit less. So, you know, is there something to the tune of 30 to 40 million dollars in sales and maybe a third of that in terms of ebitda impact in 2Q to assume that the impacts linger or does that lessen through the quarter and therefore this whole math becomes somewhat unmitigated or not necessary. All that math is not necessary. I would say that, you know, the teams have done a great job to find alternative routes in order to get some products out and to make sure that we have the necessary raw materials in order to be able to produce at the site as well. So again, the teams have stepped in very quickly to find alternatives related to that. We were able to have minimal, minimal disruption as it first occurred and clearly have plans in place as we move forward.
OPERATOR
Your Next question comes from the line of David Biglaito with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
David Biglaito (Equity Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning, Laurie. Just on construction, can you talk about the weakness in those markets and how much is down for you guys in Q1 and your expectations for the first half of the year?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, so we continue to expect overall construction markets to be about flat on a full year basis. We do have about 1% price in that space. That will give us some slight organic growth, but it's really kind of outstanding. Slightly down in the first half and then slightly up in the second half. So in the first quarter we were down low single digits. Our performance was in line with the market where the resi, primarily North America resi, continues to be weak. And then you're seeing about flattish in the commercial and do it yourself space once you back out. The data center volume that happens in commercial, our commercial is more on the healthcare education, retail side.
David Biglaito (Equity Analyst)
Very good. And just on the Middle east conflict, are there any opportunities longer term from you being a more US Supplier, reliable supplier, lower cost overall down the road? Thank you.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I mean, I think there's always opportunities that we're looking for to be able to continue to expand both our share and our tam. You know, not only are we well positioned from a share perspective, we're also well positioned with where our asset base, which has enabled us to navigate quite a few disruptions over the past couple years. So, you know, starting back with tariffs, we were able to move product around our supply chain to mitigate the headwind there. And then now with the Middle east tariffs, we've been able to move volume around to be able to mitigate the impact that was felt initially within our KSA plant in Saudi Arabia.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Duyl with Bank of America. Your line is open.
Matthew Duyl (Equity Analyst)
Morning, everyone. So healthcare sales seem to be like, you know, accelerating quite a bit. I wanted to just dig a little bit more on comps versus market versus own portfolio position for OneQ. And you know, as we look, I guess to the guidance a bit, you're looking for 4% on the year, 1% from price, I think 1Q is probably closer to 1.5%. So I kind of bridge this like 1 1/2 percentage from 1Q to 3% for the back half. Seems like maybe normalization of water, but can you fill in the gaps and maybe how that also relates to how healthcare should trend from here?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, so we had a very strong quarter with healthcare in Q1 where our results were up high. Single digits organically, that was really nice volume and some nice price as well. And we continue to expect health care to be up mid single digits as the year progresses and land at, you know, maybe mid to high single digits on a full year basis. So we have really nice positions that I had mentioned on the healthcare packaging side and see nice growth in procedures that influence both the packaging as well as the spectrum side. Livio, which is our biopharma business, saw really, really Nice results in Q1, so there's a nice recovery in demand there that will continue to see nice results. And then maybe just quick on water, you know, I had mentioned that it was down in the first quarter that was really more around the 10 million of volume that didn't ship as well as the timing of large projects. So we'll be about flat overall in water in the first half and then we think up kind of high single digits in the second half really around the project timing volume to land at mid single digits for the full year. The only thing I would add to that is just around the water business, although it's relatively flat first half, high single digits in the second half, if you adjust for the timing of the projects and normalize that, you're more going from like a 4% growth to a 5% growth.
Matthew Duyl (Equity Analyst)
Okay. And then quickly. So Tyvek has been able to absorb a fair amount of raw material pressure in a short time. And I'm looking at obviously some of your suppliers Talking about another 20 cents per pound for May. And I don't know, we'll see if they can get it right. But I'm wondering is there an ongoing propensity to be able to push surcharges in a world where this gets increasingly sketchy? I'm thinking almost maybe a little bit more on the building product side because I feel like health care would probably be less. But maybe that, maybe that's not, maybe that's not the case.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I mean we had nice success with the both mix of prices and surcharges that we already put in place whether it was April 1st or May 1st. And so I think if you can provide the documentation to your customers around what we're seeing with respect to input costs. As we had mentioned, they're most felt on the HDPE side as you had mentioned, within Tybek and then with the Siread side and water and shelter. But there's other pieces that we've seen as well. So, you know, I think there's. We haven't received an abnormal amount of pushback, obviously. There's always a discussion that needs to be had. But, you know, we're not looking to profit. We're looking to just cover it. And the conversation has been constructive.
Vincent Andrews (Equity Analyst)
Your next question comes from the line of Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you. You called out some weakness in packaging. We've been hearing sort of mixed things about the packaging arena, so maybe you could just talk about what you're see there, what the outlook is for the remainder of the year. And I would assume there's also some inflation there that you need to. Need to push through. Yeah.
Vincent Andrews (Equity Analyst)
So our impact in the packaging business
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
weakness in the first quarter was really more around the inks business. That's in scope. It's really around home and office printing. It was a tough comp from a strong first quarter of last year. I think on a full year basis, we see that overall printing and packaging businesses normalizing, being up kind of low single digits. Okay. And I think the answer to this is there's nothing. But is there. Is there any at all update to PFAS or anything that's going on with the personal injury litigation?
Vincent Andrews (Equity Analyst)
Happily, no update. All right, we'll leave it there. Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Cunningham with Citi. Your line is open.
Patrick Cunningham (Equity Analyst)
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So you previously noted, I think free cash flow greater than 90% for 2026. Is that still the case? And how should we think about working capital dynamics given the higher input costs, you know, potentially impacting cash generation cadence for the year?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yes. So first off, yes, free cash flow generation is still expected to be greater than 90% for the year. As I mentioned in our prepared remarks, our first quarter conversion was around 65%. So we did have a good start to the year. As you would expect, we tend to have a stronger free cash flow conversion in the second half of the year than the first half of the year, predominantly in the third quarter, as we have our interest payments twice a year in Q2 and in Q4. Clearly, the increased cost in materials will increase your inventory dollar value. But the teams, I would say, are doing a good job relative to our inventory days, outstanding and kind of taking those numbers down on a year over year basis. So we do have that embedded within our free cash flow conversion. So I would say we are managing working capital very well. And the teams are also focused not only on inventory, but as well as DSO in terms of collections, which will put us in a good spot to achieve our Free cash flow conversion for the year.
Patrick Cunningham (Equity Analyst)
Great, thank you. And then I think this is the first time you kind of explicitly called out microelectronics within water. So can you help us size the business there, what sort of growth rates we should expect and any color on market penetration? New technology, new wins. Thank you.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, so microelectronics is primarily within ion exchange. So it's about 20% of ion exchange. We saw a nice, nice volume in the first quarter, as you would expect, just around the broader data center AI. So we continue to expect to perform nicely there with that business.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from the line of Mike season with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Abby Al (Equity Analyst)
Hi there, this is Abby Al from iked. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to confirm your assumptions underpinning your full year 2016 guidance. So when are you assuming the conflict in the Middle east resolves, if at all? And if it stretches to the end of the year, does that mean you're
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
going to have to raise prices more than 1% to offset incremental raw material inflation? Do you think you'd see any demand destruction if it stretches that long?
Abby Al (Equity Analyst)
Any color you can give would be helpful. Thanks.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yes. So I would say our overall full year guidance anticipates that the current situation continues through the remainder of the year. So current oil prices, current natural gas prices, our assumption is that continues all year long. That is covered by the pricing actions that we have already put in place. Clearly, if this were to escalate or get even worse from where we are today, that would obviously have some impact on the assumptions that we've made, but we're not planning on it going away. Also, I would tell you that if things were to escalate from where we are today, the teams would obviously see what other actions that we could take in order to mitigate any disruptions.
OPERATOR
And then just pivoting back to healthcare, can you just talk about some of the underlying demand trends that are driving growth across the medical packaging and devices spaces?
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, a lot of it is around the aging population and healthcare access. So that's one of the key global megatrend drivers for both the med packaging and the healthcare needs. A lot of our exposure on the med packaging side is to the higher end class three devices. And on the med device side with spectrum, it's really around cardiovascular and higher end growth, not elective surgery type applications. So really with the aging population and the access to healthcare is what's driving that megatrend.
OPERATOR
Thank you very Much. And the last question will come from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. And Arun, if you could please check your mute function.
Laurie Koch (Chief Executive Officer)
Sorry, I was on mute. Apologies for that. Thanks for taking my question. I guess just one final question for me was, you know, given that you've had, you know, many years of portfolio transformation here, would you expect and maybe you can just provide us an Update on the 8020 strategy within diversified Industrials and if there's any further portfolio reconfiguration that we can expect. Thanks. Yeah, so the 8020 work within diversified is really to look at enhancing margin profile. So we had targeted four businesses to start and have been working through a really robust process on making sure that we're looking at the tail spend, looking where we're investing, making sure that we're investing for growth in pockets of where there's opportunity across those businesses. I would say more broadly with respect to the portfolio, we're excited about the portfolio that we have. It's nicely balanced between health care and water and diversified industrials. We're about 50, 50 today. We've mentioned that over the medium term we would like to get to more two thirds, one third with respect to growth above market. So, you know, moving more of the, more of the company, more towards that healthcare and water space. But as of now we're happy with the portfolio but we'll always be looking, as I had mentioned, to do some M and A. We've got dry powder and cash from Air Miz to be able to potentially take advantage of some good opportunities. Okay, thanks for that. And sorry, just one more, you know, given the 275 million ASR, is that really the last kind of accelerated repurchase activity that we should expect? Or maybe you can just comment on your outlook for further buybacks or. Yeah, capital return. Thanks. Yeah, I would say overall, you know, we're always looking to see what's going to buy bring the best return to our shareholders. So we already had completed, as we announced, you know, last quarter, the 500 million ASR. We now announced this morning, an additional 275 million ASR. As Laurie mentioned, we do have a lot of flexibility relative to the cash in the door related to the Aramidge transaction as well as the balance sheet we have. So we will continue to evaluate. As a reminder, we do have a $2 billion program of which we've used, you know, the 500 million and now the 275. So we'll continue to evaluate our opportunities and we'll act on what brings our shareholders the most amount of value. Thank you. I will now hand the call back over to Ann Giancarlo for closing remarks. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call. For your reference, a copy of our transcript will be posted on Dupont's website. This concludes today's call.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
Login to comment