Dow Chemical Price Target Upped At Deutsche Bank

In a note out this morning, Deutsche Bank is raising the price target on Dow Chemical

from $58 to $60, implying a 20 percent upside from current levels. They feel the valuation is attractive at 13.0 times 2016 EPS, and also are positive on the 5 billion dollar share repurchase program (8.5 percent of the market cap) and the 14 percent increase in the dividend. Some of the key takeaways from the note: 1) Q4 is tracking well due to strong NA ethylene/PE profitability. As a result we are raising our Q4E EPS by $0.05 to $0.72, up 9% YoY 2) Dow's key growth projects will add ~$3.5B of incremental EBITDA (vs $9.1B in ‘14E). 3) Dow reaffirmed its commitment to complete its current $4.5B share repurchase program by y/e ($1.1B remaining for Q4) and committed to repurchase $2B of shares in '15. However, with buybacks timed to coincide with proceeds from Dow's asset sales, and ~$6B of divestitures to be completed by y/e ‘15, we believe buybacks could total $4-5B in ‘15 Shares of DOW are up slightly in pre-market trading.