Monsanto Boosted by Continued Adoption of New Products
05 October 2017 - 12:39AM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford
Continued adoption of Monsanto Co.'s latest soybean, cotton and
corn products drove revenue for the seed giant, even amid what it
called a challenging agricultural environment.
Monsanto said Wednesday its sale to German chemical conglomerate
Bayer AG was progressing. Bayer's $57 billion deal to create the
world's largest supplier of pesticides, seeds and crop genes is
expected to close early next year, as regulators continue to review
the transaction.
In light of the deal, Monsanto said it wouldn't provide
financial guidance for 2018. Shares climbed roughly 1% to $120.65
in premarket trading.
Monsanto has been introducing soybean varieties that are
genetically engineered to resist a more powerful combination of
herbicides. More than 20 million U.S. acres were sown with the new
seeds, the company said Wednesday, and it expects to have the
supply for 40 million acres across next year's planting season.
Monsanto's new soybean variety, engineered to resist the
herbicide dicamba as well as glyphosate, has also been linked to
crop damage across some portions of the southern U.S. A growing
number of farmers in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee
have reported crop damage allegedly caused by dicamba drifting from
neighboring fields. Some farmers have sued Monsanto.
The company has said it advises farmers on how to use the spray
safely and will fight the lawsuits.
For the quarter Monsanto reported income of $20 million, or 5
cents a share, up from a loss of $191 million, or 44 cents a share,
a year ago. Revenue grew 4.8% to $2.69 billion. On an adjusted
basis, earnings were 20 cents a share.
The positive adjusted profit was far higher than the loss of 41
cents that analysts had projected. Monsanto said the
better-than-expected results were due to tax benefits and a pretax
benefit of $200 million due to corn licenses in Brazil.
Still, Monsanto predicts lower planted corn acres in Brazil as
well as challenging corn prices globally.
For cotton, the company saw its latest seed varieties reach more
than 6 million acres amid increases in both the U.S. and
Australia.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 04, 2017 09:24 ET (13:24 GMT)
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