Street Ignores Mosaic's Miss, Focuses on Optimism for 2010

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 10:04 am EDT, Tuesday October 6, 2009

Third-quarter earnings season is underway for fertilizer stocks, and so far it doesn't look good.

Plymouth, Minnesota-based Mosaic (NYSE: MOS - News) reported a disappointing -91% decline in fiscal first-quarter profit after the bell yesterday. The company earned $100.6 million or 23 cents a share for the three months ended August 31, down from $1.2 billion or $2.65 a share in the same period last year. Meanwhile, revenue fell by -66% to $1.46 billion. Analysts had been expecting EPS of 35 cents on revenue of $1.54 billion.

However, while the company noted that buyers remain cautious about re-stocking, it noted that "farmers will increase application rates in response to high 2010 new crop prices and the need to replenish the large amount of nutrients withdrawn by the record crop this year." Investors have focused on this forward-looking optimism and carried the sector higher despite Mosaic's earnings miss.

As a whole, the Agricultural Chemical and Fertilizer Stocks Index has struggled over the last month. It is currently lagging the S&P 500 by -2% for the period, but if more companies exude confidence for 2010, a rebound could be in store.

Monsanto (NYSE: MON - News), the Index's largest component at $40.8 billion, will report its quarterly performance before the bell Wednesday. Analysts are expecting a penny in EPS. Monsanto is among the sector's worst performers over the last month, down by -7.2%.

Investors should keep a close eye on the Agricultural Chemical and Fertilizer Stocks Index on October 22, when Potash (NYSE: POT - News), Terra Nitrogen (NYSE: TNH - News), and Terra Industries (NYSE: TRA - News) will report their numbers for last quarter.

Intrepid Potash (NYSE: IPI - News), which is also among the sector's worst performers recently, will be counting on its peers to carry it higher until November 5, when it shows its cards.

Over the last month, KMG Chemicals (NASDAQ: KMGB - News), Scott's Miracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG - News), and Compass Minerals International (NYSE: CMP - News) have helped the sector's average with each gaining over 5%.

As of this writing, the Agricultural Chemical and Fertilizer Stocks Index is just shy of the 50 worst-performing tickerspy Indexes over the last month, up by 1%.

Fun and informative, tickerspy.com is a free investing website where you can track multiple stock portfolios and compare against 250 proprietary Indexes tracking themes from nanotech to agriculture to precious metals. Best of all, tickerspy.com lets you spy on the portfolios of nearly 3,000 Wall Street institutions and hedge funds and see graphs of their performance. Try tickerspy.com today and find out how you stack up against investing legends like Warren Buffett!

Buzz up!