AGU: Agrium beats by $0.34, beats on revs (81.20)
(posting this only because it sounds so positive for agriculture in general; implication is good growth for the whole agriculture sector; could be good for equipment and fertilizer companies)
Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $2.34 per share, excluding a $0.30 charge resulting from the impairment of Agrium's investment in Hanfeng Evergreen, $0.34 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $2.00; revenues rose 32.5% year/year to $3.18 bln vs the $3.04 bln consensus. The effective tax rate was 23 percent in Q4 compared to 29 percent for the same period last year, primarily due to a one-time negative impact in 2010 of the cumulative effect of Canadian Tax Legislative changes relating to certain share based payment programs. "These impressive results were achieved despite global economic uncertainties that impacted commodity prices and led to buyer uncertainty in the later part of the year. We believe that the underlying fundamentals for the agriculture sector remain strong as crop inventory levels for most crops remain well below normal levels and in some cases are critically low. As the spring planting season approaches, farmers have a strong incentive to plant record acreage and optimize the use of Agrium's full array of crop input products and services to maximize crop production. Agrium is well positioned to continue to meet farmers' needs in 2012 and looks forward to delivering another year of value for its stakeholders."
Kurt Vonnegut wrote some great books and had a great philosophy of life:
