Deutsche Bank maintained a Buy rating on DuPont (NYSE: DD) and raised its price target to $85.00 (from $70.00). Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW), also Buy rated, had its price target raised to $65 (from $58). Analyst David Begleiter said he sees $1.5 billion of savings from operational improvements and added cost savings in a merger above the $3 billion mentioned in press reports.

"Based on the potential merger of equals between Dow Chemical and DuPont we are raising our price targets to $65/shr for Dow and $85/shr for DuPont, upside of 14% for each company. Our revised price targets assume i) a combined Dow/DuPont entity realizes $1.5B in operational improvements and additional cost savings over and above the targeted $3B in cost synergies mentioned in press reports (WSJ, CNBC)) and ii) trades at 11.0x ‘16E EBITDA in-line with its current EV/EBITDA multiple of 10.9x. Our revised price targets are supported by a sum-of-the-parts analysis of the combined entity which yields upside of 17%," said the analyst.

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Shares of DuPont closed at $74.49 yesterday.