The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

MON shares flattish on offsetting pushes—slightly lowered FY2016 EPS guidance (bad) and increased cost-cutting (good):

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/monsanto-slash-1-000-more-145337325.html

Monsanto Co plans to slash another 1,000 jobs worldwide, bringing total planned cuts to 3,600, or about 16 percent of its global workforce… The job cuts are part of a broader, previously announced plan to target $500 million in annual savings by the end of fiscal year 2018.

…The additional staffing cuts, along with site closures and contract terminations is expected to increase a restructuring charge to a range of approximately $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, from $850 million to $900 million [the prior guidance]… Of that, $493 million occurred in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015 and $318 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2016… The remainder of the restructuring charge is expected in fiscal years 2016 through 2018.

The updated non-GAAP EPS guidance for FY2016 (which excludes the above restructuring charges) is the “low end” of the $5.10-5.60 range issued in Oct 2015 (#msg-117537579).