Talking Numbers

DuPont's cruel winter

DuPont's cruel winter
VIDEO2:4902:49
DuPont's cruel winter

Shares of DuPont took a hit Friday, falling 4 percent after the company cut its profit forecasts.

In a refrain that's been heard countless times before from companies, the winter was a factor. DuPont's biggest business line, agriculture, was negatively affected. Besides lower-than-expected corn seed sales and higher-than-expected seed inventory write downs, the company said "the revised outlook also reflects lower than expected crop protection herbicide sales, largely due to weather."

(Watch: DuPont lowers Q2, full-year guidance; shares shed 2.9%)

The stock is still up a modest 6 percent for 2014 and an impressive 26 percent for the past 12 months. So, does this bit of bad news mean DuPont may have such good chemistry for your portfolio?

Richard Ross, global technical strategist at Auerbach Grayson, is negative on DuPont's stock. He notes that shares have traded above its 150-day moving average, which also coincided with a supporting uptrend line since March 2013. After what he sees as a consolidation period from February to May, the stock broke out to all-time highs at $69.75 per share earlier in June. But, with the drop on Friday, it is now just about testing the 150-day moving average, currently at $65.28.

"If the stock were healthy," says Ross, "the support at the low end of that consolidation, the trend-line, and the 150-day should have provided support. Clearly it has not, which really spells trouble for this stock."

The longer-term chart shows the stock going from "bad to worse," said Ross, a CNBC contributor. That's because he sees the 200-week moving average serving a "magnet" for the stock – resistance on the way up and support on the way down.

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"I think we could get another pullback, almost a magnetic effect back to that 200-week moving average," Ross said. "At the very least we're going to test better support around that $55 level where this whole move started to the upside. You want to be a seller here. Your first loss is your best loss and that loss is today."

However, Erin Gibbs, equity chief investment officer at S&P Capital IQ, is more positive on DuPont, noting that her firm owns DuPont in several of their portfolios.

"DuPont offers about a 2.8 percent dividend yield, which is very high for materials," Gibbs said. "Yes this quarter has been disappointing; this is two quarters in a row where they've lowered guidance about 20 to 30 cents. But it's still, even with this pullback, it's trading 15 ½ times forward earnings. We're looking at good growth of about 13 percent next year."

For that reason, Gibbs sees the current pullback as a buying opportunity.

"We still like it here," Gibbs added. "I think they made one mistake for this quarter—the spring was a little off. But long term, this is still a very solid stock."

To see the full discussion on DuPont, with Ross on the technicals and Gibbs on the fundamentals, watch the above video.

[Disclosures: S&P Capital IQ and/or one of its affiliates has performed services for, and received compensation from DuPont during the past 12 months. DuPont is a position in one or more of SPIAS model portfolios advised by Erin Gibbs.]

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