Here's Why You Should Retain DOW Stock in Your Portfolio

Dow Inc. DOW has been benefiting from its cost and productivity initiatives, growth actions in attractive markets, and advantaged feedstock positions in a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.

The company’s shares have gained 31.1% over a year compared with the Zacks Chemicals Diversified industry’s 1.2% rise.

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Let’s find out why DOW stock is worth retaining at the moment.

High-Return Growth Projects & Self-Help Actions Aid Dow

DOW benefits from its differentiated portfolio and advantaged feedstock positions in the Americas. It remains focused on investing in attractive areas. Its broad portfolio, significant low-cost feedstock positions, global footprint and market reach place it in an advantageous position against competitors. While Dow faces headwinds from heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, it remains focused on growth actions in attractive end markets and executing high-return incremental growth projects in cost-advantaged regions. 

Recent alkoxylation investments are contributing to growth in the Industrial Solutions business. The company is also expanding specialty silicones capabilities for mobility, electronics and healthcare, while increasing its emphasis on higher-value downstream applications. Dow has completed the shutdown of its higher-cost Barry, U.K., upstream siloxanes unit, shifting its silicones mix by more than 25% toward more stable and higher-margin businesses while maintaining value-chain integration. 

The Barry action is expected to provide about $60 million of EBITDA uplift in the second half of 2026. Dow also restarted its lowest-cost and most flexible European cracker in Terneuzen and remains on track to shut the Bohlen cracker by year-end 2027, actions aimed at improving its cost-curve position and regional flexibility. The Alberta project continues to progress on its revised timeline, with roughly 60% of capital expenditures already spent, most critical labor contracts awarded and incentives intact.

Dow continues to emphasize cost and operational discipline through restructuring, productivity and process simplification. The company materially completed its $1 billion 2025 cost program and delivered more than $300 million of in-period self-help benefits in the second quarter of 2026. It now expects more than $1.3 billion of total self-help benefits in 2026. DOW has launched the “Transform to Outperform” initiative to improve productivity, reduce complexity, streamline its end-to-end processes and enable improved returns. The initiative is expected to contribute about $700 million in 2026.

DOW’s Solid Financial Health Supports Capital Allocation

DOW has a strong balance sheet and generates substantial cash flows, which enable it to finance its growth investments in higher-value businesses and regions, and drive shareholder value. The company maintained about $14 billion of available liquidity at the end of the second quarter, and has no substantive debt maturities until 2029. Management plans to direct excess cash toward deleveraging and expects more than $500 million of working-capital release in the second half of 2026. 

Dow generated $1.3 billion of cash from operating activities in the second quarter, versus a $470 million use of cash in the year-ago period. The company returned $253 million to shareholders through dividends in the quarter. Management expects working-capital actions to support cash conversion.

Soft Demand Conditions and Cost Pressures Ail DOW

Dow remains exposed to weak and inconsistent demand across several regions and end markets. Packaging demand is resilient globally, and U.S. consumer spending has held up, but the U.S. housing market remains weak because of affordability concerns and high mortgage rates. In Europe, structural operating and labor costs persist despite emerging government support and trade protection measures. 

In Asia Pacific, industrial production and manufacturing activity have improved, but consumer demand remains soft and uneven. Middle East tensions and constrained shipping also continue to disrupt supply chains. These conditions were visible in second-quarter 2026 volumes, which fell 1% year over year at the company level. DOW expects a normal seasonal decline in building and construction demand in the third quarter, along with lower seasonal coatings demand.  

Dow remains sensitive to energy and raw-material volatility. The Middle East conflict has kept logistics constrained and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz below historical levels, supporting higher risk premiums for energy and feedstocks. Management described the third-quarter environment as supportive but higher cost and noted that crude oil and key feedstocks had risen sharply. Elevated feedstock and energy costs are likely to impact margins in the third quarter.

Dow Inc. Price and Consensus

Dow Inc. price-consensus-chart | Dow Inc. Quote

DOW’s Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

DOW currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the Basic Materials space are Worthington Steel, Inc. WS, Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS and Avient Corporation AVNT. WS currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while CRS and AVNT carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WS’s current-year earnings stands at $3.4 per share, implying a 52.5% year-over-year increase. Its earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters and missed twice, with the negative average surprise being 13.8%.
 
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRS’s current fiscal-year earnings is pegged at $12.92 per share, implying a 20.1% year-over-year increase. Its earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 8.4%. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AVNT’s current-year earnings is pegged at $3.2 per share, indicating a 13.5% year-over-year increase. Its earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 3.4%.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research