Monsanto Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates

Monsanto Company MON reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal third quarter. The St. Louis, Missouri-based company reported quarterly earnings of $1.14 billion, or $2.39 per share, compared to $858 million, or $1.62 per share, in the year-ago period. Its sales surged to $4.58 billion from $4.25 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.07 per share on revenue of $4.61 billion. The average estimate among 33 Estimize users was for earnings of $2.10 per share and revenue of $4.68 billion. Net sales in the Seeds and Genomics segment rose to $3.2 billion from $3.0 billion, while corn seed and traits sales climbed to $1.52 billion from $1.30 billion. Agricultural productivity sales surged to $1.39 billion from $1.21 billion. Selling, general and administrative costs totaled $718 million in the quarter, while R&D expenses totaled $374 million for the quarter. "The challenges facing the world's food supply continue to evolve. The growing population, along with our volatile and changing climate, place ever-increasing burdens on sustainable global food production," said Hugh Grant, chairman and chief executive officer for Monsanto. "Equipping farmers with the right set of innovations that will help solve tomorrow's food challenges today requires more than a new company - it requires a new vision and approach. Our proposal to combine with Syngenta is an exciting logical next step for our business, offering the opportunity to accelerate innovation and support a more diverse group of farmers around the world." For the full fiscal year, the company reaffirmed earnings forecast to be at the low end of its $5.75 to $6 per share range. Monsanto shares gained 0.02 percent to $112.80 in pre-market trading.