Seed maker Monsanto 3Q net income drops 45 pct as Roundup herbicide sales hurt by cheap rivals

Monsanto 3Q net income sags on weak Roundup sales

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Monsanto Co., the world’s biggest seed maker, said Wednesday its fiscal third-quarter net income tumbled 45 percent as it shrank its Roundup weedkiller business amid intense generic competition.

As Roundup sales have flagged, Monsanto last year said it was accelerating its long-term strategy to shift the majority of its business from chemicals and herbicides to genetically altered seeds. But the transition has been rougher than expected as growing generic competition from China drives steep declines in Roundup sales, and Monsanto has struggled to entice farmers to buy up its pricey genetically modified seed.

The effect of cheaper knock-offs on Roundup is akin to the drop in sales that drugmakers see when blockbuster treatments go off-patent. Drugmaker Pfizer Inc., for example, is struggling to come up with a drug that can replace the sales it will lose when its $11.5 billion-a-year cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor starts competing with generic versions at the end of 2011.

In May Monsanto slashed its full-year earnings outlook as it cut prices on Roundup. On Wednesday, the company backed the revised guidance, continuing to expect 2010 earnings per share between $2.40 and $2.60 before restructuring costs. CEO Hugh Grant said Monsanto is implementing a new strategy to offer cheaper genetically engineered seeds along with its premium varieties that have multiple engineered traits.

Grant said the cheaper seeds are an answer to farmers’ concern that Monsanto’s new products, like its SmartStax corn seeds, are too expensive. That has opened the door to competitors who offered cheaper seeds carrying fewer traits. Soft demand kept corn seed sales flat at $1 billion in the third quarter, with soybean sales rising just 2 percent to $549 million.

“They need more products at more price points,” Grant said of farmers. “The beauty of that (request) is that it’s all within our control. We don’t have to go out and invent something.”

The St. Louis company said its net income dropped to $384 million, or 70 cents a share, in the quarter ended May 31, from $694 million, or $1.25 a share, a year ago. Excluding $86 million in restructuring costs linked to downsizing the Roundup unit, profit would have totaled 81 cents per share.

Revenue fell to $2.96 billion from $3.16 billion a year ago, with sales in Monsanto’s agricultural productivity unit — which includes Roundup — declining 34 percent to $600 million.

Analysts had been looking for a profit of 79 cents per share on higher revenue of $3.17 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters poll. Monsanto shares slipped 62 cents to $46.72 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session the stock fell as low as $45.30, its lowest point since November 2006.

At $2.36 billion in sales, seeds and genomics represented the bulk of the company’s quarterly revenue. Monsanto said that 5 percent growth rate year-over-year is consistent with its expectations. It plans to continue to grow its research and development budget to bolster its seed pipeline, but said 2011 spending will rise at a smaller rate than it has over the past few years.

Monsanto Chief Financial Officer Carl Casale said that now that the changes to its business model have been put in place the company doesn’t expect to see more volatility from its declining herbicide business.

“Monsanto now becomes a pure-play seeds and traits company,” Casale said on a conference call with analysts Wednesday. “That means it’s seed and traits growth that matters.”