Citi Analyst Touts Pending Monsanto Product Launch

Monsanto Company MON is plowing into a near-term headwind from a corn glut, but its product pipeline ensures healthy earnings growth in the longer term, an analyst said Monday.

Citi's P.J. Juvekar said the company's expected launch of its Roundup Xtend crop system for soybean "could be the largest biotech launch in MON's history."

Juvekar raised his price target on Monsanto to $145, citing the company's various plans for new products.

Roundup system, which still requires regulatory approval, include seeds resistant to herbicide as well as a separate weed-killing component.

Chief Technology Officer Robert Fraley told analysts last week the company's pending products amount to "the deepest and most valuable pipeline in Monsanto's and the industry's history."

Monsanto last week beat fiscal first-quarter estimates, but posted a 34 percent decline in earnings for the period, while revenue fell 8 percent.

Low corn prices resulting from a record U.S. crop spurred farmers in South America to cut back on planting, the company said.

Juvekar, who maintained a Buy rating on Monsanto, expects corn prices will remain low in 2015 and said operating expense discipline "will become an important theme for the company this year."

Monsanto changed hands recently at $119.44, up 0.34 percent.