DuPont grew Q2 2026 sales 4% to $1.82B, all of it organic, and operating EBITDA 6% to $448M. Continuing-ops EPS rose to $1.37 from $0.17 on lower post-spin interest and separation costs, while a $125M North Carolina PFAS charge cut total EPS to $1.05. Full-year guidance was raised.
Revenue
$1.8B
+4.0% YoY
Net income
$143M
+142.4% YoY
Diluted EPS
$1.05
+150.0% YoY
What happened
DuPont's second quarter of 2026 was its third full quarter as a slimmer company. It spun off its electronics business as Qnity Electronics on November 1, 2025, and sold its Aramids business (Kevlar and Nomex fibers) to Arclin on April 1, 2026. What remains is two segments: Healthcare & Water Technologies and Diversified Industrials (building products, aerospace and other industrial materials).
Net sales rose 4% to $1,819 million. All of that came from organic growth, meaning the change in sales after stripping out currency moves and businesses bought or sold. At the total-company level, currency added nothing this quarter. GAAP income from continuing operations rose from $24 million to $191 million, but only part of that jump reflects a better business. Most of it came from costs that disappeared after the separation: lower interest, lower separation fees and a normal tax rate.
The bottom line was held back by a $125 million pre-tax charge for a PFAS ("forever chemicals") settlement with North Carolina, booked in discontinued operations. That charge pushed discontinued operations to a $44 million loss. As a result, total diluted EPS was $1.05, compared with $1.37 from continuing operations alone.
Key figures
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Net sales (continuing ops)
$1,819M
$1,749M
+4.0%
Organic sales growth
+4%
n/a
n/a
Gross margin (continuing ops; net sales less cost of sales, our calculation)
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All figures are for the three months ended June 30. Prior-year figures have been restated to exclude both Qnity and Aramids, which are now reported as discontinued operations.
Per-share figures reflect the 1-for-3 reverse stock split that took effect on June 24, 2026, and all periods have been restated for it. That is why EPS looks about three times higher than DuPont's pre-split per-share history.
Operating EBITDA, its margin and adjusted EPS are the company's own non-GAAP measures. They come from the August 4, 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1). DuPont's income statement has no "operating income" subtotal, so this report shows no GAAP operating margin.
Takeaway: The underlying business improved modestly: organic sales grew 4% and operating EBITDA grew 6%. The eightfold rise in continuing-operations GAAP EPS is mostly a weak year-ago base. Q2 2025 carried $84 million of interest on pre-spin debt, $55 million of separation costs and a 69.2% tax rate. With those gone, adjusted EPS (+48%) and, better still, operating EBITDA (+6%) give the cleaner read.
Why the year-ago comparison flatters GAAP earnings
Pre-tax income from continuing operations rose by $188 million, from $78 million to $266 million. Operating EBITDA rose by only $25 million. Most of the gap comes from items outside day-to-day operations:
Interest expense fell from $84 million to $41 million. The 10-Q attributes this "primarily... to the changes in capital structure during 2025 as a result of the Electronics Separation." Qnity paid DuPont a cash distribution of about $4.1 billion before the spin, and total debt now stands at $3,125 million.
Acquisition, integration and separation costs fell from $55 million to $7 million. Last year's costs went mainly to preparing the Qnity spin and the Aramids sale.
Sundry income swung from a $9 million expense to $42 million of income. The 10-Q gives two main reasons. There was no repeat of last year's non-cash mark-to-market loss on interest-rate swaps, and foreign-exchange results flipped from losses to gains.
The effective tax rate fell from 69.2% to 28.2%. Management attributes the high prior-year rate to "transaction-related items recognized in 2025."
The core operating costs moved much less. Cost of sales held at 65% of net sales. SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses) rose $7 million to $269 million, 15% of sales in both years. R&D fell from $53 million to $42 million.
Segments
Segment
Net sales Q2 2026
Net sales Q2 2025
Organic growth
Currency
Operating EBITDA Q2 2026
Operating EBITDA Q2 2025
Operating EBITDA margin (2026 vs 2025)
Healthcare & Water Technologies
$856M
$817M
+4%
+1%
$258M
$248M
30.1% vs 30.4%
Diversified Industrials
$963M
$932M
+3%
0%
$213M
$199M
22.1% vs 21.4%
Corporate
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
-$23M
-$24M
n/a
Operating EBITDA is DuPont's measure of segment profit: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, with significant one-off items stripped out. The segment margins come from the earnings release.
Healthcare & Water Technologies: organic sales grew 4%. The 10-Q credits "broad-based volume growth led by personal protection and biopharma in Healthcare Technologies and continued strength in industrial water and semiconductor markets within Water Technologies, partially offset by weakness in the Middle East." According to the release, Healthcare Technologies grew mid-single digits organically and Water Technologies grew low-single digits.
Segment EBITDA rose 4%, but the margin slipped 30 basis points (0.3 percentage points) to 30.1%. The release says organic growth and productivity "were more than offset by less favorable mix and growth investments." In other words, profit grew more slowly than sales in this segment.
Diversified Industrials: organic sales grew 3%. Industrial Technologies grew mid-single digits, helped by aerospace and electric-vehicle applications. Building Technologies grew low-single digits on residential and non-residential construction. Segment EBITDA rose 7% and the margin widened 70 basis points to 22.1%, which the company attributes to organic growth, favorable mix and productivity. Building Technologies' organic sales were flat for the first half as a whole, so its second-quarter growth followed a weaker first quarter.
Volume vs price: neither the 10-Q nor the earnings release breaks organic growth into volume and price for this quarter. For Healthcare & Water, the 10-Q describes the growth as "broad-based volume growth" and gives no figure for price.
First half of 2026
Metric
H1 2026
H1 2025
YoY Change
Net sales (continuing ops)
$3,500M
$3,361M
+4.1%
Organic sales growth
+3%
n/a
n/a
Income from continuing ops, net of tax
$341M
$104M
+228%
Net income (loss) available for DuPont common stockholders
$304M
-$530M
n.m.
Diluted EPS, continuing ops
$2.43
$0.73
+233%
Operating EBITDA (non-GAAP, company-reported)
$862M
$783M
+10.1%
Cash from operating activities, continuing ops
$632M
$151M
+318%
The H1 2025 net loss came mainly from a $768 million goodwill impairment on the Aramids business, recorded in discontinued operations. A weaker US dollar against the euro added 1 point to first-half sales growth.
Portfolio changes: Aramids sale and Qnity
Aramids: DuPont puts the total sale price at $1.8 billion. It received about $1.2 billion in pre-tax cash, a $300 million note receivable (recorded at a fair value of $183 million) and a stake of about 16% in Arclin, valued at $325 million.
The total loss on the sale is $378 million. That figure includes an $82 million gain booked in Q2, when the carrying value of the sold business was finalized.
This gain is why Aramids contributed $57 million of discontinued-operations income in the quarter.
Investing cash flow from continuing operations was +$989 million for the half, "primarily driven by the proceeds from the Aramids Divestiture."
From now on, DuPont will book its share of Arclin's results under the equity method, on a three-month lag.
Qnity: the Electronics business contributed $208 million of discontinued-operations income in Q2 2025 and -$1 million in Q2 2026. Losing that income is why total discontinued operations swung from a $46 million profit to a $44 million loss.
PFAS liabilities
PFAS litigation is the main legacy risk on DuPont's balance sheet. The claims stem from chemicals made by the former E. I. du Pont business (now EIDP/Corteva) and by Chemours. Under a 2021 agreement known as the MOU, DuPont, Corteva and Chemours share qualifying PFAS costs. Separately, Qnity reimburses DuPont for 44% of DuPont's share.
North Carolina: in Q2, DuPont accrued a $125 million pre-tax charge in discontinued operations for a settlement with North Carolina and local municipalities over emissions from the Fayetteville Works plant. The charge is the present value of DuPont's share, before Qnity's 44% reimbursement.
The agreement was signed after quarter-end and disclosed in an 8-K filed September 10, 2026. It calls for a combined $455 million paid over 15 years, shared among the three companies under the MOU. DuPont and Corteva will also set up a $135 million reserve fund as a backstop.
Together, the New Jersey and North Carolina settlements mean all future contributions to the MOU escrow account are treated as satisfied. That includes the contribution that would have been due in September 2026.
Balance sheet: total liabilities accrued under the MOU rose to $530 million at June 30, 2026, from $371 million at December 31, 2025. Related indemnification assets, mostly amounts due from Qnity, rose to $201 million from $143 million. Net MOU activity cost $154 million after tax in the quarter.
Open exposure: about 12,400 personal-injury cases were pending in the AFFF (firefighting foam) multi-district litigation at June 30.
DuPont says it has never made or sold AFFF. It is named in most of those actions only over fraudulent-transfer claims tied to its past spin-offs.
The company says it cannot estimate losses beyond what it has accrued, and that additional losses "could have a significant effect" on its financial condition or cash flows.
Cash, buybacks and balance sheet
Cash flow: Q2 operating cash flow from continuing operations was $400 million, up from $74 million a year earlier. After $76 million of capital spending, adjusted free cash flow was $324 million. The 10-Q credits the first-half improvement to "higher earnings and improvements in net working capital."
Buybacks: in May, DuPont repurchased $275 million of stock through an accelerated share repurchase, receiving 1.8 million shares at $148.91 each (post-split). About $1,225 million remains on the $2 billion authorization, and the company expects to buy back another $250 million in Q3. Diluted weighted-average shares were 136.8 million, down from 139.9 million a year earlier. The quarterly dividend is $0.60 per post-split share.
Balance sheet: at June 30, cash was $1,740 million and total debt was $3,125 million, versus $715 million and $3,194 million at year-end. Credit ratings are BBB+/Baa1/BBB+, all with stable outlooks.
Restructuring: DuPont launched a cost-cutting program in February 2026 and expects it to cost about $100–150 million through 2028. It has recorded $51 million of charges so far.
Guidance and outlook
Management raised its full-year 2026 guidance, which is given on a non-GAAP basis in the earnings release:
Guidance (continuing ops)
2H 2026E
Full-year 2026E
Net sales
$3,660–3,690M
$7,160–7,190M
Operating EBITDA
$890–910M
$1,750–1,770M
Adjusted EPS
$3.65–3.80
$7.17–7.32
The CFO now expects full-year organic sales growth "slightly above 4%," with mid-single-digit organic growth in the second half. The full-year EBITDA midpoint of about $1.76 billion implies roughly $900 million for the second half, compared with $862 million in the first half. So the guidance does not depend on a big acceleration.
DuPont also said that from July 31, 2026, its GICS classification changed to Industrials. GICS is the standard sector classification used by index providers, and the change reflects the post-spin business mix.
Our read:
Growth: the continuing business is growing at a steady low-to-mid-single-digit pace. Diversified Industrials is widening its margins, while Healthcare & Water is giving up a little margin to fund growth investments.
Comparisons: year-over-year GAAP comparisons will stay distorted at least through Q3 2026, because the pre-spin quarters still carry higher interest and separation costs. Operating EBITDA and organic growth are the cleaner gauges.
PFAS risk: PFAS is the main swing factor for reported net income. With North Carolina settled, the largest remaining exposure is the AFFF personal-injury docket, which DuPont says it cannot yet estimate. These legacy costs also consume cash: discontinued operations used $167 million of cash in the first half, including MOU payments.