DuPont de Nemours (DD) Economic Moat Analysis—

Moat—

Insufficient evidence for every rubric criterion; no category score is inferred.

structural advantage · 1/4 · Contractual access to patents and know-how, together with complex approval requirements, supplies a weak basis for potential differentiation. The passages do not demonstrate exclusion, superior customer outcomes or switching friction. This grade reflects limited evidence of an advantage, not demonstrated competitive inferiority.

durability · — · No remaining patent terms, protected-product economics or sustained customer preference are disclosed. Approval renewal and possible adverse IP decisions identify erosion channels, but do not establish how long an economic advantage currently lasts. A durability grade would require assumptions beyond these passages.

customer dependency · — · Product approval requirements apply to DuPont's right to sell; they do not establish customers' dependence on its products. No customer qualification burden, embedded design relationship, replacement cost or repeat-purchase evidence is supplied. Aggregate sales growth cannot identify those mechanisms.

erosion resilience · — · Recent earnings and margin improvements demonstrate operating progress, but do not show an identified advantage surviving substitution, rival innovation or an adverse IP event. Conditional cost pass-through and IP risks remain relevant possibilities. The catalog cannot distinguish durable competitive resilience from favorable demand, mix and productivity.

Pricing power—

Insufficient evidence for every rubric criterion; no category score is inferred.

realized pricing · — · Second-quarter 2026 organic sales increased 4%, but the definition removes currency and portfolio effects without separating price from volume or mix. The EBITDA explanation also combines growth, mix and productivity. Neither establishes observed price increases or cuts; historical pricing claims in the previous analysis lack current catalog support.

retention · — · Aggregate growth provides no separation of repeat orders, new customers and market demand. The disclosed regulatory process does not establish customer switching costs. There are no customer cohorts, renewals, engagement measures or sufficiently specific repeat-demand outcomes from which to assess retention indirectly.

margin resilience · 2/4 · Second-quarter operating EBITDA increased from $423 million in 2025 to $448 million in 2026, and margin rose from 24.2% to 24.6%. Management attributes improvement to organic growth, favorable mix and productivity. This supports partial operating resilience, but neither isolates pricing nor demonstrates performance through a sustained adverse cycle; EBITDA also excludes specified costs.

contractual freedom · — · The supplied seller-specific sales-condition fragments do not establish the complete operative repricing terms or their prevalence across DuPont. The disclosure that competitive conditions influence cost pass-through concerns commercial feasibility, not contractual authority. Company-wide ability to reset prices or terms therefore remains unassessable.

Predictability63

5 consecutive published annual periods. Equal weights: nondeclining revenue frequency; revenue-growth volatility (5–40pp); positive FCF frequency; FCF-margin volatility (3–20pp). Stability indicator, not a growth forecast.

Nondeclining revenue years (%)

25.00

Revenue growth volatility (pp)

17.81

Positive FCF years (%)

80.00

FCF margin volatility (pp)

5.79

observedAnnualPeriods

5.00

Financial strength25

Equal-weight grades: debt/FCF (1–8x), net debt/earnings before interest and tax (0–5x), interest service (1–12x), current ratio (0.75–2x). Earnings use reported operating income, an original issuer-reported unadjusted EBIT reconciled to net income, income tax and signed net interest, or reported pretax profit plus reported gross interest expense. Reported EBIT is distinct from GAAP operating income and gross interest. Interest service uses earnings/interest expense; if unavailable, it uses reported operating cash flow/cash interest paid, without relabeling cash paid as accrued expense. Nonpositive cash flow/earnings score 0 for their service component; reported zero interest with a positive numerator scores 100. Net cash scores 100 for net leverage. Missing disclosures remain unavailable. General nonfinancial-company rubric, not a credit rating; exceptional and nonoperating gains are not normalized out. IFRS finance-cost and cash-flow classifications retain their reported scope.

debtFcfGrade

0.00

netDebtEbitGrade

0.00

interestCoverageGrade

0.00

currentRatioGrade

100.00

Debt / FCF (x)

14.07

Net debt / operating income (x)

13.33

Interest coverage (x)

0.59

Current ratio (x)

2.42

Capital allocation52

Three-year equal-weight indicators: pretax return on average invested capital (0–25%; equity + debt − cash, each year and its prior year), share-count growth (0–5%, lower better), share-based cost/revenue (2–20%, lower better), consolidated FCF/net income (0–1x). Return uses reported operating income, an original issuer-reported unadjusted EBIT reconciled to net income, income tax and signed net interest, or EBIT calculated from reported pretax profit plus reported gross interest expense; the issuer-reported EBIT is distinct from GAAP operating income and gross interest; exceptional/nonoperating gains are not normalized out. Share-based cost uses the reported cash-flow add-back or, if absent, separately reported recognized compensation expense; the latter never becomes an FCF adjustment. Nonpositive net income scores 0 for cash conversion; absent income/FCF stays unavailable. ROIC remains undefined for nonpositive invested capital; the explicit asset-return alternative does not change the ROIC chart. Missing financial inputs alone never trigger an alternative. Does not establish acquisition quality or buyback timing.

3-year pre-tax operating return (%)

2.13

3-year average dilution (%)

-24.97

3-year average SBC / revenue (%)

0.55

cashConversionGrade

0.00

Management56

Equal-weight average of four evidence-backed rubric grades (0–4), scaled to 100.

capital discipline · 2/4 · First-half 2026 continuing operating cash of $632 million exceeded $178 million of capital expenditures. DuPont completed the Aramids sale and a $275 million share repurchase. These demonstrate cash generation and completed capital actions, but not their investment returns; sale consideration also includes a note and non-controlling equity rather than cash alone.

incentive alignment · 2/4 · Disclosed director share-retention requirements, executive and director hedging restrictions, ownership guidelines, payout caps and clawback controls provide substantive alignment mechanisms. Actual executive holdings, compliance and realized pay-performance sensitivity are not established. These policies support a mixed assessment rather than proof of strong or exceptional alignment in practice.

execution · 2/4 · Completed Electronics separation and Aramids divestiture demonstrate transaction execution. Second-quarter 2026 organic sales growth of 4%, higher EBITDA and improved first-half continuing cash generation provide indirect operating evidence. The passages do not establish sustained post-separation results or achieved transaction returns, so anticipated strategic benefits receive no credit.

governance · 3/4 · Annual elections, majority voting and stockholder rights accompany an entirely independent Audit Committee that held eight meetings during 2025 and disclosed private-session practices. Subsequent voting results confirm election of ten directors. These demonstrate strong governance processes, while leaving their effectiveness in preventing poor decisions or misconduct unproven.