Monsanto slashes its outlook, stock falls 5%
Agriculture giant Monsanto has cut its earnings and cash flow targets for both the 2016, citing concerns about the global economy.
"Today, the macro-environment is proving to be even more challenging, yet we still see strong long-term growth opportunities for our business," said CFO Pierre Courduroux in a press release from the company Wednesday.
In response the company has cut its full-year earnings per share target to$4.40-$5.10, from its previous outlook of $5.10-$5.40. Its free cash flow target for 2016 was cut to $1.4-$1.6 billion from $1.6-$1.8 billion.
The company does everything from produce seeds for farmers to developing pesticides and said there were a number of factors impacting the business.
"However, entering the fiscal year, the company indicated that there were several variables creating significant headwinds, namely: weak foreign currencies, generic glyphosate pricing and compressed grower margins coming from lower commodity prices," said the release.
"These have not abated and the company has seen additional headwinds from competitive dynamics and the delay in the EPA label for in crop use of dicamba."
In response, the stock was trading down a little over 5% at $87.80 in pre-market trading.
