Monsanto (MON) Hilarious Reaction to Guidance

I love these news reports - talk about misleading headlines. One week ago Monsanto preannounced to the UPSIDE and raised full year guidance to $3.15-$3.25 [Mar 25: This Day in Agriculture]. Today they repeated the exact same verbage and lo and behold news outlets are reporting the stock is down due to guidance for the full year! Hilarious! What an awful company; in the past 8 days they could not find a way to raise guidance! Sell 'em off!

• Monsanto(MON) on Wednesday reported surging fiscal second-quarter profits on the back of strong demand for its corn seed products in the U.S. and Brazil. Shares were falling 3% to $109.39, however, as the company's full-year outlook appeared a bit light.
• The agricultural giant posted net sales of $3.78 billion, a 45% jump from the $2.61 billion it reported in the second fiscal quarter last year. Net income came in at $1.13 billion, or $2.02 a diluted share, vs. $543 million, or 98 cents a diluted share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, the company posted a profit of $1.79 a share from ongoing operations, vs. 99 cents a share a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected a profit of $1.72 a share on revenue of $3.6 billion.
• "Between now and 2012, we are the only agriculture company that can point to consistent growth irrespective of commodity price swings, fluctuations in planted acres or the popularity of ethanol," he continued. "Over the next five years we're poised to set the bar higher as we deliver a game changing platform every other year, real products that create real value for the farmer and for our shareowners."
• The low end of Monsanto's full-year guidance, however, fell below Wall Street's expectations for the full year. The company sees earnings of between $3.38 a share and $3.48 a share on a reported basis and between $3.15 a share and $3.25 a share on an ongoing basis. Analysts see earnings of $3.20 a share. (once again, they repeated what they said last Tuesday - obviously a huge disappointment!)
• The Street also had tempered expectations for Monsanto's competitors in the near term. Citi analyst Brian Yu said in a note after Tuesday's bell that fertilizer maker Mosaic(MOS ) could miss fiscal third-quarter profit targets due to an Agriculture Department report that showed farmers are planting less corn. The stock was falling 1.1% to $100.35 in recent premarket action. (competitor? really now - this is such shoddy reporting...)

This is some seriously funny reporting - basically it is what happens every day on Wall Street - 90% of the time there is nothing that drives the market specifically but reporters need to grab onto something to "explain" why the markets are down X% or up X%. Same with the stocks...

I do like Monsanto (MON); just not at this valuation as I believe the upside is relatively limited. But I've been saying that for a year now and have missed a huge move.