Monsanto swings to 1Q loss amid lower seed sales

Monsanto on Wednesday said it swung to a USD 253-million loss in the first fiscal quarter, amid foreign currency pressures and falling sales of its biotech-enhanced corn seeds.
On a per-share basis, the St. Louis-based company said it had a loss of 56 cents. When adjusted for one-time gains and costs, the company turned a profit of 11 cents per share. The results beat Wall Street expectations for a loss of 24 cents per share, according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
The agriculture products company posted lower revenue of USD 2.22 billion in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected USD 2.55 billion.

Its shares fell 2.3 percent in premarket trading. Monsanto has struggled in recent quarters to deal with slumping corn prices in the U.S., which have reduced demand for its best-selling product: genetically-enhanced corn seeds. Farmers are shifting more acres to other crops after surpluses of corn and other crops, which have squashed prices for agriculture commodities, including wheat.
Monsanto's biotech seeds have genetically engineered traits that help farmers increase their crop yield, despite their higher prices. Monsanto has dominated the bioengineered-seed business for more than a decade and recently began developing products specifically for emerging markets like Argentina, Brazil and parts of Asia.

The company cautioned that its fiscal 2016 results would likely be in the lower range of its full-year guidance, $5.10 to USD 5.60, due to headwinds including the devaluation of Argentina's currency. For the year, Monsanto expects negative currency trends will lower its earnings by 60 to 70 cents per share, more than its previous estimate of 35 to 40 cents per share.
Monsanto shares fell USD 2.28, or 2.3 percent, to USD 95 in premarket trading about 45 minutes before the market open. Its shares have fallen slightly more than 1 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has dropped slightly more than 1 percent. The stock has dropped 17 percent in the last 12 months.