Monsanto Logs $126 Million Profit, Topping Expectations

Monsanto also announced 14 areas of advancement in its research and development platforms, noting progress in corn, soy, cotton, wheat and canola.

The results exceeded the company’s raised forecast offered last month. Monsanto shares rose 5.5 percent to close at $76.68 on the news.

Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, said net income for the first quarter totaled $126 million, up from $9 million a year before, while earnings per share rose to 23 cents from 2 cents a year earlier. Analysts had expected 16 cents a share.

The first quarter, which ended Nov. 30, is typically the weakest for Monsanto, coming at the end of fall harvest and before spring planting. But the growing corn business in Latin America is helping the quarterly results, company officials said.

“We’ve seen a very strong start to the year, with real growth in Latin America and early orders in the United States that underscore our sustained momentum carrying into 2012,” Hugh Grant, Monsanto’s chairman, said in a statement.

An increase in customer prepayments for the spring selling season helped lift free cash flow to $856 million, up from $500 million a year before.

One disappointment for the company is the performance of its vegetable seed business. Those sales dropped to $157 million from $183 million a year before, despite efforts to expand that business into one of the company’s top three platforms.

Mr. Grant said softness in the European market was primarily to blame, and he said the company’s outlook for full-year vegetable seed business was “conservative.”

Monsanto officials said they were hopeful of that they could commercialize the company’s new drought-tolerant corn. They are pursuing international approvals after recently receiving approval from American regulators.

The company, which is based in St. Louis, affirmed its forecast of free cash flow for the 2012 fiscal year in the range of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, reflecting an investment of $600 to $700 million in capital expenditures.

And Monsanto said it expected full-year earnings per share for 2012 to come in at the high end of its forecast for $3.39 to $3.44.

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