Corteva, Inc. (CTVA)
Fair ValueFundamental
50
Price
$77.65
Market Cap
$53.01B
Part 1 · What the company is worth
Overview
Corteva sells seeds and crop-protection chemicals to farmers in about 110 countries. It was separated from DowDuPont in 2019, combining the old Pioneer seed genetics business with DuPont's agricultural chemicals. Its products help growers raise yield and fight weeds, insects and fungi on corn, soybeans and other row crops, sold mainly through independent dealers and a direct agency network built around the Pioneer brand.
How it makes money
Revenue comes from two distinct product sales: branded seed with proprietary genetics and traits (Seed), and herbicides, insecticides and fungicides (Crop Protection). Both are booked when the dealer or farmer takes delivery, concentrated in the planting seasons of each hemisphere. Seed carries higher margins thanks to patented traits; Crop Protection is more exposed to generic competition once patents expire.
Revenue by segment
Corn, soybean and other seed sold under the Pioneer and Brevant brands, built on decades of proprietary germplasm and licensed and owned biotech traits.
Herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and biologicals, including newer active ingredients such as Zorvec and Arylex alongside older, more commoditized products.
Competitive moat
Patents and licences · NarrowCorteva's germplasm library reflects roughly 90 years of Pioneer breeding and field-testing data, and it holds thousands of patents including its own biotech traits rather than relying only on licenses. That data and IP base is hard to replicate quickly, but Bayer and Syngenta hold comparable positions, so the advantage is real but not exclusive.
What drives demand
CyclicalPurchases follow the planting calendar and farmers' expected income: commodity crop prices, input costs and weather in a given season decide how much a grower spends on seed and chemicals that year. A drought, a flood or a slump in corn and soybean prices can compress an entire season's demand quickly.
Key risks
- Dependence on regulatory approvals — New seed traits and crop-protection products need approval from agencies such as the EPA, USDA and FDA and their equivalents abroad, and countries' rules on genetically modified crops differ and can change, delaying or blocking launches.
- Weather and climate variability — Abnormal weather in a major growing region — drought, excess rain, early frost — reduces both the acreage planted and the demand for crop inputs in that season, and the company cannot offset a bad season with sales elsewhere in the same window.
- Legacy environmental and litigation liabilities — Corteva carries obligations and litigation exposure inherited from its DuPont and Chemours history, including PFAS-related claims and crop-protection product liability suits, which can result in material costs unrelated to current operating performance.
- Competition from generics and major peers — Once a crop-protection active ingredient's patent expires, generic manufacturers can undercut it on price, and Corteva competes across both segments against a small number of very large rivals with comparable scale and research budgets.
- Execution risk of the planned Seed and Crop Protection separation — In October 2025 Corteva announced a plan to split into two independent listed companies. Carrying out that separation involves cost, management distraction and uncertainty over how each resulting company's shared costs and liabilities will be divided.
The case for
Buyers argue that Corteva's decades of proprietary germplasm and its own biotech traits let it capture more of the value chain than seed rivals who license traits from others, and that splitting Seed from Crop Protection could let each business be valued and managed on its own merits.
The case against
Sellers fear that both segments remain exposed to weather and commodity cycles outside the company's control, that generic competition keeps eroding Crop Protection margins, and that the planned separation adds execution risk and uncertain cost allocation on top of an already cyclical business.
Written by the editors, published on August 18, 2026
Direct competitors
Who this company fights with for the same customers
Generated on September 18, 2026 with claude-haiku-4-5 — shared with all users
Bayer's Crop Science division is the only rival that matches Corteva across both of its businesses at once, selling corn and soybean seed with its own herbicide-tolerance traits alongside a full herbicide, fungicide and insecticide range to the same North and South American row-crop farmers.
Syngenta, owned by China's Sinochem and not publicly listed, competes head-on for the same farmer's wallet with a combined seed and crop-protection offer in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and is named as a competitor in Corteva's own 10-K.
BASF's Agricultural Solutions unit sells competing herbicides, fungicides and seed treatments plus its own soybean and canola seed-and-trait systems, going after the same crop-input budget on the same acres.
FMC is a pure crop-protection company whose insecticides and herbicides compete directly with Corteva's Crop Protection segment for the same treatments on corn, soybeans and specialty crops, especially in Brazil and the United States.
UPL is the largest supplier of off-patent crop-protection chemistry and undercuts Corteva's branded herbicides and fungicides once molecules lose exclusivity, particularly in Brazil, India and Eastern Europe.
KWS is a seed-only breeder that competes with Corteva's Pioneer brand for corn, sugar beet and cereal seed sales to European and North American farmers.
Balance Sheet & Liquidity
Revenue
$17.81B
Trailing 12 months (through 6/30/2026)
Net Income
$1.01B
Trailing 12 months (through 6/30/2026)
Free Cash Flow
$2.81B
Total Equity
$24.14B
Total Liabilities
$18.46B
Current Ratio
1.52
Interest Coverage
-
Debt/EBITDA
0.39
Earnings Per Share
Revenue & Net Income
Free Cash Flow
Income Breakdown
Historical statement
Margins over time
Debt over time
How heavy the debt is
Growth grid
Growth — Revenue
Fair Value Estimation
Fair Value
$65.04
Current Price
$77.65
Margin of Safety
-19.4%
Fair Value Range
$42.27 - $87.80
Spread across the valuation methods used, not a statistically calibrated confidence interval.
Estimation Methods
Valuation Metrics
P/E Ratio
50.75
ROE
4.5%
P/B Ratio
2.06
P/FCF
82.37
Gross Margin
49.5%
ROIC
-
Profitability Radar
Value Creation (Economic Moat)
ROIC
-
WACC
7.8%
ROIC − WACC
-
Fundamental Analysis Criteria
Passed (14)
- EPS shows upward trend
- Price CAGR 15.37%
- Gross Margin 49.5%
- P/B Ratio 2.06
- Debt/Equity ratio
- Positive Free Cash Flow
- Current Ratio
- Debt/EBITDA
- Return on Tangible Assets
- Analyst Consensus 69% Buy
- Earnings Surprise avg 20.6%
- Earnings Quality (OCF/NI) 1.20
- Share Dilution -2.0%
- Piotroski F-Score 6/9
Failed (9)
- P/FCF 82.37
- CapEx intensity
- Low reliance on intangibles
- Price below Graham Number
- DCF valuation (Overvalued)
- ROE 4.1%
- Revenue Growth 5Y 4.1%
- PEG Ratio 4.33
- Net Margin Trend 5.7% vs 8.2%
Unavailable (4)
- ROIC NaN%
- Dividend Payout NaN%
- Operating Margin NaN%
- Interest Coverage
Piotroski F-Score
Mixed signals: some areas need attention
Earnings Quality
High quality: earnings backed by cash
Share Dilution
Buying back shares. Shareholder friendly
Institutional Holdings
Governance
Executive Team
| Name | Title | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Charles Victor Magro B.Sc. (Chem), MBA | CEO & Director | 55 |
| Mr. David P. Johnson | Executive VP & CFO | 57 |
| Dr. Samuel R. Eathington Ph.D. | Executive VP and Chief Technology & Digital Officer | 56 |
| Mr. Cornel B. Fuerer | Senior VP & Strategic Advisor | 58 |
| Mr. Judd M. O'Connor | Executive Vice President of Seed Business Unit | 54 |
| Mr. Brian Titus | VP, Controller & Principal Accounting Officer | 52 |
| Kimberly Booth | Vice President of Investor Relations | - |
| Dr. Jennifer Amy Johnson Ph.D. | Senior VP, Chief Legal & Public Affairs Officer and Corporate Secretary | 50 |
| Ms. Audrey Grimm | Senior VP & Chief People Officer | 44 |
| Mr. Jeffrey Rudolph | Senior VP & Chief Strategy Officer | 42 |
Audit Risk
5
Board Risk
3
Compensation Risk
5
Shareholder Rights Risk
5
Part 2 · The price and when to enter
This part won't tell you whether the company is worth owning: it helps you choose when to buy it, once the fundamentals have convinced you. Inside: technical analysis, potential, historical drawdowns, gamma exposure.
Documents
- View document
Annual Report (10-K)
A yearly overview of the business, its financial results, and the risks it faces.
Filed on 2026-02-12
- View document
Quarterly Report (10-Q)
A snapshot of financial performance for the most recent three-month period.
Filed on 2026-07-31
- View document
Current Report (8-K)
An announcement of a major event, such as a leadership change or big news.
Filed on 2026-10-01
via SEC EDGAR
Income History
via SEC EDGAR
Latest News
Recent headlines for CTVA, sourced from Markets Gazette.
- 8/20/2026NEUTRALVylor Raises $1.1 Billion in Latest Pre-Spinoff Bond Sale
Vylor Inc., a subsidiary of Corteva Inc., successfully raised $1.1 billion through an investment-grade bond sale. The proceeds are earmarked to fund a payout to Corteva Inc., its soon-to-be former parent company, as Vylor prepares for a spinoff. This transaction highlights Vylor's ability to access capital markets effectively, but the direct financial impact on Corteva is primarily related to the distribution of funds rather than operational changes. Investors will monitor the terms of the spinoff and Vylor's future performance as an independent entity.
via Markets Gazette