MON—On the FY2Q13 CC last week, the executives were plainly more confident than they have ever sounded at an investor presentation, which I attribute to the landmark settlement with DuPont last month (#msg-86130866, #msg-86136091, #msg-86139200).
I consider the MON-DD settlement analogous (on a somewhat smaller scale) to the DoJ’s termination of the longstanding antitrust suit against IBM in 1982. When DoJ finally dropped that case against after 13(!) years, it freed IBM to pursue its business objectives more aggressively, and the shareholder value has appreciated accordingly.
MON’s long-term guidance has been for annual (non-GAAP) EPS growth in the mid-teens; however, in light of the DuPont settlement, I think MON can probably grow somewhat faster than that.