DuPont shareholders can afford to give the billionaire activist Nelson Peltz a chance.

The proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is backing Mr. Peltz and another of his nominees for the board of the company, which has a $68 billion market value.

The case isn’t strong, but Mr. Peltz has a good track record and a big stake in the company. If investors put just him on the board, he would be able to serve for only a year; after that, it would be up to DuPont to give Mr. Peltz, now 72, a waiver for his age so he can stand for re-election.

I.S.S. stopped short of recommending all four nominees advanced by Mr. Peltz’s Trian Fund Management. It also demurred on the question of whether DuPont should follow Mr. Peltz’s advice and break itself up, arguing that no one “outside the DuPont boardroom” knew whether it was a good idea.

Instead, I.S.S. said the fact that DuPont’s stock price had raced ahead of underlying earnings growth was evidence that the investor was “onto something” when he criticized the company’s performance under its chief executive, Ellen Kullman. That’s a tepid argument for overturning a well-qualified board.