UPDATE 2-DuPont sees "challenging" months ahead as farm sales weaken

(Adds forecast, executive comment)
July 28 (Reuters) - Chemical and crop company DuPont (NYSE:DD) DD.N
said the remainder of the year would be "challenging", as a
strong dollar and persistently weak demand for its farm products
continue to chip away at sales.
DuPont also cut its full-year profit forecast due to the
weak outlook and to account for the spin-off of its performance
chemicals unit, sending its shares down as much as 7 percent.
The company lowered its full-year operating earnings
forecast to $3.10 per share from $4 per share - 80 cents due to
the spin-off and 10 cents due to weak agricultural sales.
DuPont, whose sales have missed analysts' expectations for
the last four quarters, has also been hit by a strengthening
dollar. The company gets about 60 percent of its overall sales
from outside the United States.
The company is speeding up its cost-reduction program to
combat the impact of weakening sales, and in January raised its
cost-reduction target by $300 million to at least $1.3 billion
by 2017.
"We fully expect to continue to find additional
opportunities that will take us beyond the $1.3 billion of cost
reduction," Chief Executive Ellen Kullman said on a
post-earnings call on Tuesday.
Weak global demand for crop protection products, reduced
corn farming in Latin America and lower soybean volumes in North
America are weighing on DuPont's farm business, which accounts
for a little over a third of total sales.
DuPont clocked lower sales in all its six ongoing businesses
in the second quarter ended June 30 and forecast lower sales in
the current quarter as well.
The company expects sales in the agriculture business to
fall the most in the current quarter - in the "mid-teens" in
percentage terms, steeper than the 11 percent fall in the latest
quarter.
Consolidated net sales fell 11.5 percent to $8.60 billion,
missing analysts' average estimate of $8.75 billion, according
to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Net income attributable to DuPont fell 12 percent to $940
million. On an operating basis, it earned $1.18 per share, in
line with analysts' expectations.
Shares of the company, which in May thwarted an attempt by
activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management to land
board seats, were down 0.3 percent at $56.58. They hit a session
low of $52.79.