EmailMonsanto (MON $79.30 +1.43) reported third quarter earnings of $1.63 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $1.58, while revenues rose 16.9% year/year to $4.22 billion versus the $4.01 bln consensus. The company reaffirmed guidance for fiscal year 2012 with EPS of $3.65-3.70 versus the $3.70 consensus. Sales for Monsanto's Seeds and Genomics segment in Q3 of fiscal 2012 increased 18% or $481 mln over the prior year period supported by strong sales across its U.S. corn and soybean portfolios.
In the U.S. market, continued sales momentum carried from the early spring throughout the planting season and an increase in planted acres of corn across the country helped deliver a record seed sales volume season for the company. In 2012, the company achieved continued strong adoption of its latest innovations, with its Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans projected to be on close to 30 million acres and its Genuity reduced refuge corn family projected to be on more than 25 mln acres this year in the United States.
