Monsanto Loss Widens as Corn Sales Fall

Biotech seed giant Monsanto Co. said its loss widened in its latest quarter, as corn-seed sales continued to weaken.

The company also forecast earnings, excluding items, for its new fiscal year of $5.10 to $5.60 a share, well below analysts' forecasts of $6.19.

Monsanto also said it plans some restructuring actions to optimize its business and announced a new stock-buyback program totaling $3 billion. Shares declined 2.3% in premarket trading.

The St. Louis company has grappled with a stronger U.S. dollar, which makes its seeds and crop spray more expensive for farmers outside of the country. At the same time, sagging commodity prices have diminished farmers' spending power and dampened demand for high-tech seeds from Monsanto and rivals like DuPont Co. The price of corn, Monsanto's main source of seed sales, is down about 2% this year.

In the face of those issues, Monsanto tried to acquire Swiss agribusiness giant Syntenta AG, but the company dropped its pursuit in August after Syngenta rejected its increased $46 billion takeover bid.

For the latest quarter, Monsanto reported a loss of $495 million, or $1.06 a share, from a year-earlier loss of $156 million, or 31 cents a share. Excluding certain items, the company's per-share loss was 19 cents, compared with 27 cents. Revenue slid 10% to $2.36 billion.

Analysts projected a loss of 2 cents a share on sales of $2.77 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Gross margin fell to 42% from 47%.

Corn sales, Monsanto's biggest source of profit, declined 5.1% to $598 million. U.S. farmers are expected to dedicate more fields to soybeans in pursuit of higher profits, and the company has said it stands to benefit over the long-term as it releases newer varieties designed to produce more of the oilseed per acre. In the latest period, soybean sales dropped 19% to $162 million.

Sales in the company's agricultural productivity segment, which includes its Roundup brand weed killer, fell to $1.1 billion from $1.25 billion.

Write to Nathan Becker at [e-mail] and Lisa Beilfuss at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 07, 2015 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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