Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: MON's leveraging of balance sheet

…that Monsanto is going into the market right now a scoop up around $6 Billion of shares (10% of the company) tells me that they need these shares off the market to meet the EPS numbers.

You have the story backwards! MON was able to issue aggressive new 5-year EPS guidance (doubling of EPS from FY2014 to FY2019) because of the strongly accretive effect of share buybacks.

Monsanto got slammed pretty good by both Fitch and S&P…

That might be a concern for the bondholders, but not the stockholders. Many companies spend too much time worrying about small changes in their credit rating and end up needlessly sacrificing profitability.

[MON’s] long rates don't seem like a bargain in my opinion.

Couldn’t disagree more. The 20-, 30- and 50-year interest rates on MON’s new bonds shown in #msg-103764173 are superb for MON and disasters-in-waiting for the bond buyers, IMO.

What would you have considered good rates for MON on these tranches? Just curious.