Monsanto (MON) Raises 2008 Guidance

October 2, 2008 11:22 AM EDT

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) raised its fiscal year 2008 EPS guidance again, citing a strong conclusion to the fiscal year from its Roundup and other glyphosate-related herbicide business paired with the previously announced better-than-anticipated seeds-and-traits performance.

Monsanto indicated that it now expected ongoing EPS guidance for 2008 in the range of $3.64 and revised its reported EPS guidance in the range of $3.59. In mid-September, the company indicated it expected ongoing EPS guidance in the range of $3.58 to $3.60, with reported EPS in the range of $3.49 to $3.51.

CEO Hugh Grant said, "Our business continues to be strong on all fronts, and that's reflected in both our performance and in our confidence in our outlook going forward. Our Roundup business continues to represent a sustainable platform that we can pair with the accelerated growth in our seeds-and-traits business to more than double the size of our total company gross profit from 2007 to 2012."

Monsanto also increased the targets for the 2009 fiscal year and its 2012 long-term targets for the Roundup business. Previously, Monsanto indicated it expected the full year gross profit contribution from Roundup for 2009 to be in the range of $2.1 billion to $2.2 billion. Given additional clarity going into fiscal year 2009, Monsanto now expects that Roundup will generate in the range of $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion in gross profit in fiscal year 2009. The company also increased the 2012 gross-profit target to $1.9 billion from its original target of $1.8 billion.

Monsanto is off the day's lows, but is still down 13% on a downgrade and disappointing results from Mosaic (NYSE: MOS).

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