Dow Chemical Hits the Jackpot (DOW, DD, LYB, BRK-A, BRK-B)

Rising commodity prices didn’t hurt fourth quarter earnings or revenues at Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW). The company posted EPS of $0.37 from profits of $511 million on revenue of $13.77 billion. Excluding items for both the 2009 and 2010 quarter, EPS rose from $0.18 to $0.47. Analysts had been expecting EPS of $0.35 on revenue of $12.48 billion.

Dow dealt with rising commodity prices in the old-fashioned way — it raised its prices in the face of stronger demand for its products. Company-wide sales volume rose 12% across all geographic regions, while sales prices rose by 10%, offsetting a rise of $685 million in feedstocks and energy costs.

Competitor EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD) did not fare so well with rising commodity prices, and is now facing some serious resistance to its $5.8 billion offer for Denmark’s Danisco AS. LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE: LYB), which came public again in April 2010 has not reported fourth quarter results yet, but had guided lower sales for the quarter as a result of the usual seasonal adjustments.

One big winner from Dow’s strong results for the past several quarters is Warren Buffett. His Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A; BRK-B) put up $3 billion in 2009 to aid Dow’s $18.8 billion acquisition of Rohm and Haas. Dow’s shares at the time were priced at around $10, compared with more than $36 today, and his preferred shares could yield about $1.27 billion in interest payments through 2014. We reported the details of his investment in our story on Buffett’s greatest investments of all time.

Dow did not provide specific guidance with its earnings report other than to say that the company expects growth to continue, but that Dow “remain[s] prepared for a reversal in momentum” in the global economic recovery.

Dow shares opened this morning at a new 52-week high above $37, topping the new high of $36.69 set yesterday.

Paul Ausick